Confusion and doubts in Mexico after Spain halts voting rights under its ‘grandchildren law’

The Spanish Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily suspend voting rights for people naturalized under Spain’s “grandchildren law” met with confusion outside the country’s consulate in Mexico City. Many people visiting the consulate on Tuesday said they did not know about the ruling and continued with their procedures as usual.

The decision stops new citizens from being added to the Electoral Register of Spaniards Living Abroad until consulates formally certify that they meet the requirement of being direct descendants of exiles. The measure increases bureaucratic scrutiny of thousands of applications being processed abroad.

Andrea Villaseñor, who obtained Spanish nationality as the great-granddaughter of Republican exiles, said she was unaware of the legal change but understood the desire to strengthen checks on nationality grants. “Complicating it can harm some people,” she said.

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Complicating it can harm some people.

Alfredo Cimental, the grandson of a Republican exile who reached Mexico after passing through a concentration camp in France, welcomed continued verification that applicants’ ancestors genuinely experienced exile. He said the restriction should focus strictly on the electoral participation of people who do not live in Spain. “If you have not lived there for the last three years, for example, why should you vote? I do not know the candidate,” he said.

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said during an April visit to the consulate that it had received more than 117,000 applications, making Mexico the country with the second-highest number after Argentina. The 2022 law allows children and grandchildren of Spanish-born citizens to seek nationality if they meet requirements tied to birth outside Spain and the exile of a parent or grandparent for political, ideological, religious, or sexual-orientation reasons. Official figures cited in the report say 2.4 million descendants of people forced into exile after the Spanish Civil War or under Francoist persecution have applied, with 544,722 approved and 306,000 registered as Spanish citizens.

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If you have not lived there for the last three years, for example, why should you vote? I do not know the candidate.