The Central Electoral Board (JEC) met behind closed doors yesterday to deliberate on the claims submitted by various social agents – from the civil servants’ union, CSIF, to parties like Vox – regarding the naturalization process under the so-called grandchildren law. All the board members agreed to demand that, in the applications submitted, the choice of the municipality to which the new Spanish citizens are assigned be “sufficiently justified.” However, some of the members present wished that the body had done more to “put an end” to what they consider a “formidable and irreversible increase in the census.”
Four members signed a dissenting opinion stating that there is an “irregular increase in the census” and that the JEC “cannot remain inactive” in the face of the situation described in the documents submitted by the various agents. “If the Central Electoral Board is not competent to put an end to a formidable and irreversible increase in the census contrary to what is provided in the Law, who would be?” states the dissenting opinion formulated by member Carlos Vidal – professor of Constitutional Law – and joined by three other members of the body.
“Not only do we have the competence or the faculty to act, but also the obligation to prevent the census from being expanded contra legem [against the law]“, add the members dissenting from the resolution issued by the majority, which stated that “it exceeds the powers of the Central Electoral Board to rule on the circumstances that allow the granting of nationality and its procedure.”
The signatories of the dissenting opinion focus on the Instruction issued in October 2022 that expanded the cases under which Spanish nationality can be obtained under the Democratic Memory Law. This regulation opened the door for descendants of Spanish exiles to naturalize, something the members signing the dissenting opinion do not see as a problem. However, they point out that the approved Instruction expands the cases under which nationality is granted – with provisions “contrary to the Law itself” – and thus is “the direct cause of the census growth” which, they believe, the Electoral Board should “put an end to.”
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The four members consider that the JEC “should have agreed to order” the Electoral Census Office to send an instruction to consulates, town halls, and Civil Registry officers so that “they only process census registrations when the applicant has proven the cause of exile required by the Democratic Memory Law” – that is, excluding the reasons included in the expansion introduced by the October 2022 Instruction -.
The members insist, in any case, that the Electoral Board is indeed competent to rule on this matter, arguing that although it is a provision “not directly electoral, its application has evident effects on an essential instrument for holding elections, such as the electoral census.” Furthermore, they urge considering the “relevance” of the fact that one of the documents studied at yesterday’s meeting came from CSIF, the civil servants’ union, to which “many of the people, both civil servants and labor staff, applying the Instruction in consular offices belong.”