The Supreme Court has notified this Thursday the arguments for which last Tuesday it agreed to suspend the right to vote of those who had obtained Spanish nationality thanks to the facilities of the grandchildren law. “There is a risk of alteration of the electoral census through an exceptional increase in the number of new registrants in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents,” state the rulings that uphold the precautionary measure claimed by Iustitia Europa and Vox.
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The Chamber considers that “the extraordinary increase” in the number of registered voters, together with the fact that this number “is constantly increasing, with figures of the extraordinary dimension exposed,” are circumstances that must be assessed, “since they may affect the transparency of the electoral process and the public’s confidence in its results, as well as generating a founded circumstance of uncertainty about the electoral outcome.”
The magistrates review the requirements that must be met to adopt a precautionary suspension while the substance of the appeals is resolved. They argue that, if not done, an irreversible effect would occur that would make a favorable ruling on the appeals useless. “The appellant rightly argues that the electoral census is permanent and is updated every month,” it indicates, adding that, moreover, “new registrations continue to be processed and resolved” in the Cera.
It recalls that the appellants have provided figures that have not been challenged by either the State Attorney’s Office or the Central Electoral Board. As of July 1, 2026, there were 2,736,522 voters registered in the Cera, compared to 2,328,260 in the 2023 general elections. “This is, therefore, a total of 408,262 more voters, of which electoral districts such as Madrid, with 115,572 more voters, or Barcelona, with 43,439 more voters, reveal an exceptional increase in voters registered in the CERA.”
Such an increase “had not occurred before” the Democratic Memory Law and, above all, the interpretation by the Ministry of Justice that the rule meant that everyone who left Spain between 1936 and 1955 should be considered exiled. Therefore, their children and grandchildren could apply for Spanish nationality, which entails the right to vote.
Another legal requirement to adopt the precautionary measure is that there is the so-called appearance of good right, that is, that the allegations are presented as solid. This is also met, says the Chamber. It states that the Ministry of Justice’s instruction that presumed that everyone who left Spain was exiled “does not seem to conform to the content of the legal norm it interprets.”
The decision to suspend the right to vote has been adopted by five of the six magistrates of the Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber. One magistrate has issued a dissenting opinion against the suspension.
