Spain's Supreme Court blocks voting rights for 163,020 "grandchildren's law" citizens

Spain's Supreme Court ruled on October 12, 2026, that 163,020 newly naturalized Spanish citizens registered in the external voters' census cannot vote in the general election scheduled for November 29. The Administrative Litigation Chamber's Fourth Section rejected an appeal by the State Attorney's Office and kept in place a precautionary suspension first ordered on September 10.

What the court decided

The suspension applies to registrations in the Census of Absent Residents (CERA), the electoral roll used by Spaniards living abroad. According to figures cited in Spanish media coverage of the ruling, 163,020 people who registered in CERA through the disputed naturalization route were affected by the census closure on October 12, out of roughly 544,722 people who had obtained nationality through this pathway and 369,017 who had signed up for CERA overall by June 2026.

The court said the ruling does not strip anyone of Spanish nationality itself. What it suspends is one specific consequence of that nationality: inclusion in the electoral census for this particular election. According to Infobae's coverage of the ruling, judges described the threat to the integrity of the electoral process as a "founded, real and serious danger" to the census's objectivity and transparency.

Background: the 'grandchildren's law'

The dispute traces back to Spain's Law of Democratic Memory, approved in October 2022, which allows children and grandchildren of Spaniards who went into exile during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship to claim Spanish nationality. Shortly after the law took effect, an instruction attributed to Sofía Puente, a senior justice ministry official, told registry offices to presume exile status for anyone who left Spain between 1936 and the end of 1955, without requiring documentary proof that the departure was politically motivated.

Vox and the organization Iustitia Europa challenged that instruction and asked the Supreme Court for precautionary measures against it. The court granted the suspension on September 10, and has now confirmed it ahead of the November vote.

Government and prosecutors wanted it lifted

The State Attorney's Office and the Public Prosecutor's Office both asked the Supreme Court to lift the suspension, arguing it was practically impossible to review the roughly 163,000–170,000 affected files individually before the election. The court rejected that argument, saying the Administration had not sufficiently clarified what steps it had taken to execute the September order during the month that followed it. One of six magistrates on the panel dissented from the ruling, according to reporting on the decision.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska criticized the outcome, saying it seemed that the right to vote was not considered very important by some.

Why it matters for the November 29 election

Spanish outlets covering the ruling note an overlap with the 2023 general election: estimates based on historical turnout of around 9% among external voters suggest roughly 14,700 people who voted in 2023 would not be able to vote in 2026 under the current suspension, because their registration falls within the disputed category. Spain's overall external voters' census (CERA), covering all countries and naturalization routes, grew about 17.7% between the 2023 and 2026 elections; according to Infobae's reporting, much — though not all — of that increase is linked to the 2022 instruction on exile presumption.

Under the ruling, people affected by the suspension can still vote if they are able to document that their ancestor's departure from Spain was for exile reasons, rather than relying on the blanket presumption set out in the contested 2022 instruction.

What is still unresolved

The ruling is a precautionary measure, not a final judgment on the legality of the 2022 instruction or the broader scope of the 'grandchildren's law.' The underlying case over whether the instruction correctly implemented the Law of Democratic Memory remains pending before the courts. The government has signaled it may continue to contest the suspension, while Vox and Iustitia Europa argue it protects the integrity of the electoral roll.