Spanish Supreme Court Rules on Voting Rights Under Law of Grandchildren

The Spanish Supreme Court has rejected a petition to suspend the voting rights of nearly 190,000 children of individuals naturalized through the country's law of grandchildren, ensuring they will be permitted to cast ballots in the general election scheduled for November 29. In rulings issued by the Contentious-Administrative Chamber, the court dismissed requests from Vox and Iustitia Europa to extend a prior voting suspension. Meanwhile, the State Attorney's Office, representing the government, had also opposed the restriction, arguing it was no longer legally viable.

Judges explained that the original suspension of voting rights for the primary beneficiaries of the law was adopted on September 10, well ahead of the dissolution of the Cortes Generales and the election announcement, and later ratified on October 12. In contrast, the magistrates noted that the new precautionary request arrived too late, with more than half of the electoral period already elapsed, just one week before the start of the electoral campaign, and two weeks before ballots are cast in consulates.

The resolution highlighted that initiating a review of the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA) at this advanced stage would create significant operational challenges. The court emphasized that executing such a review before the voting and scrutiny dates would violate the core principles of legal certainty and electoral stability, potentially causing severe disruptions to general interests.

Although the government argued that the affected group's participation rate would be minimal, the high tribunal disagreed, noting that the population of children totals 189,678 individuals, which exceeds the 162,454 parents currently facing voting suspensions. The court initially suspended the parents' votes due to a perceived risk of altering the electoral census through an exceptional increase in new registrants, a rationale the judges found even more applicable to the larger group of descendants.

The decision featured a dissenting opinion from Magistrate Antonio Jesús Fonseca-Herrero, who argued that future rulings on the matter would inevitably have to address the children's status and that a consistent line of action required extending the suspension. Conversely, Magistrate Alicia Millán issued a separate opinion maintaining her long-standing objection to suspending the votes of any eligible citizens whose inclusions were legally enacted.

In a parallel ruling released the same day, the Supreme Court upheld its previous suspension barring approximately 163,000 individuals from voting who acquired Spanish nationality under a specific instruction tied to the Democratic Memory Law without providing direct proof of exile. The court confirmed that only 901 applicants had successfully verified their relatives' exile status and would retain their voting privileges, while thousands of others remain temporarily sidelined under suspicions of administrative irregularities.