Vox has escalated its legal campaign over the Spanish government’s implementation of the 'ley de nietos', filing criminal complaints against two senior Justice Ministry officials. The party accused María Ester Pérez Jerez, then Director General of Legal Security and Public Faith, and her predecessor Sofía Puente Santiago, now Secretary General for innovation and Quality in Public Justice Services, of administrative prevarication and usurpation of legislative powers. The allegations concern their official instructions on processing applications under the Democratic Memory Law.
The complaint challenged two measures: an instruction signed by Puente on 25 October 2022 and another signed by Pérez Jerez in November 2024. Vox argues that an administrative instruction cannot create a nationality entitlement beyond the conditions set by Parliament and the Civil Code. The party said the 2022 measure “creates a form of acquiring nationality outside the Civil Code” and “innovates the legal order.”
Puente’s 2022 instruction guided consulates and civil registries on applications by descendants of Spaniards who left Spain between 18 July 1936 and 31 December 1955. It treated departure during that period as sufficient to presume exile, so applicants did not have to provide additional evidence that the emigrant had faced political persecution. The nationality route comes from the Democratic Memory Law, commonly known as the “grandchildren law,” which allows certain children and grandchildren of Spaniards affected by exile or political repression to seek Spanish nationality.
Pérez Jerez’s November 2024 instruction addressed applications with missing documentation. It allowed applicants who had started their applications through official online tools before the statutory deadline to submit the missing materials afterward. Vox alleged that both instructions went beyond administrative implementation and encroached on Parliament’s legislative role.
On 22 October 2026, Judge María Isabel Durántez Gil of Madrid’s Court of Instance, Instruction Section, Plaza 3, rejected Vox’s complaint at the admissibility stage. As El Correo reported, the judge found that earlier proceedings had already examined the same facts concerning Puente, invoking the principle of cosa juzgada. She also concluded that issuing administrative instructions fell within the officials’ powers, reportedly describing Puente’s authority as “indisputable” and finding that Pérez Jerez had full competence to issue her instruction. The decision did not establish criminal liability or rule on every broader question about the law’s interpretation.
The rejection is one of two different procedural outcomes arising from challenges to the 2022 instruction. Another Madrid court admitted a separate complaint filed by Hazte Oír against Puente for investigation over alleged administrative prevarication. Europa Press reported that the case concerns similar allegations, so the dismissal of Vox’s complaint did not end all litigation surrounding the measure.
The broader dispute has also had electoral implications. In a separate judicial matter, infoLibre reported on a provisional Supreme Court measure affecting the voting rights of 163,020 Spaniards descended from exiles while a legal issue was under review. That reported measure did not itself declare their acquisition of Spanish nationality unlawful.
Vox has also sought to have both instructions annulled through the State Secretariat for Justice and said it would appeal to the National Court if its request were rejected. In parallel, the party announced plans to challenge the Central Electoral Board (JEC) before the Supreme Court after the Board refused to suspend postal voting rights for Spaniards living abroad. Vox cited a dissenting opinion by three JEC members, who argued that parts of the 2022 instruction conflicted with the law it was meant to implement, while also maintaining that the Board lacked authority to intervene. The party has separately urged the European Commission to initiate infringement proceedings against Spain, alleging that the nationality route grants EU citizenship without sufficient ties or security checks.
The dispute reflects wider tensions in Spain over historical memory and citizenship, including the limits of administrative interpretation. Similar controversies have arisen in challenges involving the application of amnesty laws to Catalan leaders. In one case, Catalan officials contested a Tribunal de Cuentas decision over conflicting interpretations of EU and Spanish law.
Enacted in 2022, the Democratic Memory Law addresses the legacy of the Civil War and Francoist repression, including a route for some descendants of exiles to seek Spanish nationality. The competing legal proceedings concern how that statutory route should be administered: Vox argues that the instructions changed the law’s reach, while Judge Durántez treated their issuance as within the officials’ administrative remit. The remaining proceedings may affect how the nationality provisions are applied and the claims of families seeking Spanish citizenship.
