The Partido Popular says grandchildren with clear proof of a family link to a Spanish emigrant should qualify for Spanish nationality, regardless of whether that ancestor was exiled. Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo set out that position during a public appearance at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santander. The PP’s support for the broader entitlement, but, has not stopped it from challenging how the rules were put into practice.
The legal structure is the eighth additional provision of Ley 20/2022, the Democratic Memory Law, enacted on 19 October 2022. On 25 October, the Directorate General for Legal Certainty and Public Faith, then led by Sofía Puente, issued an instruction on how consulates should process applications. It was published in Spain’s Official State Gazette the following day. The instruction covered people born outside Spain to a parent or grandparent who was originally Spanish and presumed exile for Spaniards who left the country between 18 July 1936 and 31 December 1955.
That presumption is basic to the dispute. It meant applicants did not have to establish individually that an ancestor’s departure during that period resulted from persecution rooted in political, ideological, religious or identity-based grounds. Critics argue that applying the presumption in this way extended a reparative measure beyond descendants able to demonstrate exile and reached families of emigrants whose departure was unrelated to the Civil War or Francoism. Supporters of the broader reading regard descent from an originally Spanish parent or grandparent as a separate route, with exile as an additional basis for eligibility.
Consular forms were corrected in February 2023 to clarify the routes. The revised wording addressed applicants whose parent or grandparent was originally Spanish, as well as those whose ancestor lost or renounced Spanish nationality as a consequence of exile. Critics say the change helped broaden the process through administrative guidance rather than a new act of Parliament. Feijóo has described the process as arbitrary and opaque, and says it lacks adequate legal safeguards. He argues that an administrative instruction should not determine a measure’s practical reach in place of clear legislation.
The PP’s position so combines support for nationality for grandchildren who can prove their Spanish ancestry with criticism of the procedure used to establish access. Feijóo has also framed the issue in terms of the welfare state, raising concerns that new citizens who move to Spain could add pressure to public services, including healthcare. The party argues that questions of institutional capacity and legal certainty should be addressed alongside the rules governing eligibility.
The route has particular significance for descendants in Latin America and elsewhere with long-standing Spanish emigrant communities, where applicants may need civil-status records linking generations of a family to an originally Spanish ancestor. The broad interpretation means eligibility is not confined to families able to document political exile or forced displacement. The dispute so involves both the law’s reparative purpose and the scope of the nationality option created by its additional provision.
At its heart is a disagreement over whether the law established a nationality entitlement for descendants of originally Spanish emigrants in its own right, or whether access should be limited more closely to descendants of people who suffered exile. For the PP, support for the entitlement does not settle whether the administrative process used to implement it was sufficiently transparent or legally grounded. The outcome affects applicants seeking to establish family links, as well as the consulates and public institutions responsible for processing applications and serving new citizens.
