The dispute over the so-called 'ley de nietos' has intensified after Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo renewed his attacks on the regulation granting Spanish citizenship to descendants of exiles from the Franco era. He calls the measure 'illegal' and overly broad, but the law remains in force. Its legal basis is the eighth additional provision of Spain's Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory, which entered into force in October 2022. The law passed through 32 parliamentary steps and was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado that year. No legal challenge was filed within the required timeframe, and the Central Electoral Board (Junta Electoral Central, JEC) has declined to question the law's validity.
Feijóo's criticism focuses on a 2022 instruction from the Ministry of Justice clarifying procedures for civil registry officials handling applications. He argues that it extends citizenship rights beyond grandchildren to great-grandchildren and later generations, a claim based on a minority dissent within the JEC. The Board's majority rejected this interpretation by a vote of nine to four. It emphasized that the JEC lacks authority to assess the substance of laws or their implementing regulations.
The legal provision creates routes for specified children and grandchildren of Spaniards by origin to opt for Spanish nationality. It covers cases where nationality was lost or renounced in connection with exile for political or ideological reasons, as well as religious persecution or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The dispute concerns how the ministry's instruction applies those criteria in individual cases; the law does not establish a general, unlimited entitlement for all great-grandchildren.
The controversy has exposed contradictions within the Partido Popular itself. Feijóo now calls for the instruction's repeal and promises a Civil Code reform to tighten requirements for naturalization. Yet the party previously advocated broader access to citizenship for descendants of Spanish emigrants, especially in Galicia. The current instruction reflects demands historically made by Galician conservatives and was included in Feijóo's own 2023 electoral program.
Government sources say neither the Ministry of Justice nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received a formal request from the Partido Popular to alter or repeal the law. Officials say the legal window for challenging the measure closed years ago, a position the JEC has echoed. At a recent meeting, the Board also considered concerns raised by Vox and the CSIF union about the electoral census for foreign nationals. It ruled unanimously that the current system has functioned without issue since 2011.
Within the JEC, a minority led by Carlos Vidal, appointed by the Partido Popular, argued that the Justice Ministry's instruction goes beyond the original intent of the Ley de Memoria Democrática. In their view, it presumes that all Spaniards who left the country between 1936 and 1955 were exiles and expands eligibility to a much larger group. The majority maintained that such policy questions fall outside the Board's remit and should be taken to the courts if necessary.
The program's scale has put added pressure on consular and civil-registration offices. A government tally put the number of applications submitted in person at consulates at 1,225,188 by May 31, 2026. By that date, 571,761 cases had been approved, while 333,696 registrations had been made in consular civil registries. These are separate administrative stages, not interchangeable counts of people. Other government figures have reported different totals, reflecting different reporting dates and counting methods for applications or completed registrations.
The application deadline for new claims ended in October 2025, although consulates continue to process applications already lodged. A Justice Ministry instruction issued in November 2024 allowed applicants who had requested an online appointment before the deadline to submit documents later if the consulate could not offer an appointment in time. They had to establish their identity and the date of the request. The arrangement was intended to prevent consular delays from barring applicants who had started the process within the statutory period.
The law's electoral consequences have become a separate focus of the dispute. Figures attributed to the State Attorney's Office put the number of people naturalized under the provision and added to the external electoral register, known as CERA, at 163,020. The transition to DICIREG, Spain's digital Civil Registry system, began in 2025 and complicated the transfer of older records. The Foreign Ministry established a dedicated platform to transmit information to the Electoral Census Office.
The Supreme Court has also sought information from the government about people added to the register. Two orders from its Administrative Litigation Chamber gave the justice and foreign ministers five days to provide information concerning approximately 163,000 people, information from published coverage. The request concerns identification and electoral registration; it is not a judgment annulling Law 20/2022. Vox has announced plans to challenge the JEC's recent resolution, but that action targets the electoral census, not the citizenship law. Any appeal would go to the Supreme Court.
Argentina illustrates the distinction between applications, nationality decisions and electoral registration. As of July 31, 2025, official figures recorded 366,579 applications under the Democratic Memory Law. They also showed 174,277 descendants who had obtained nationality or the right to it, and 61,499 people already entered on the electoral register. These totals represent different stages of the process. They do not establish that every person granted nationality was immediately registered to vote.
The contested reach of the rules is illustrated by an individual case granted on May 14, 2025, to a 93-year-old Mexican citizen whose application was linked to a Spanish-born great-grandfather who died in 1889. The case has fueled debate over how the instruction applies beyond the direct parent-or-grandparent relationship specified in the law's principal routes. An individual decision does not create automatic citizenship for every later generation, but it has sharpened disagreement over the administrative interpretation.
The Partido Popular and the PSOE have both shifted positions on the issue over the years, at times supporting and opposing broader access to citizenship for descendants of exiles. The PP's representative at the JEC meeting acknowledged this inconsistency, pointing to the parties' history of contradictory proposals in parliament.
The debate over the scope and intent of the 'ley de nietos' continues to reflect the complexities of Spain's approach to historical memory and national identity. For further context on legal disputes involving Spanish institutions, see the recent case in which Catalan leaders challenged a Tribunal de Cuentas decision, detailed in this related report.
Spain's approach to citizenship for descendants of exiles reflects broader efforts to address historical injustices. The Ley de Memoria Democrática was designed to recognize the suffering of people forced to leave Spain during the Civil War and Franco dictatorship, and to offer eligible descendants a path to Spanish nationality. Its implementation has had particular impact in countries with large communities of Spanish origin, including Argentina and Mexico. The program's scale has brought questions of legal interpretation and civil registration into the political debate, alongside concerns about voting rights.
