Spain's grandchildren law grants citizenship to those who never lived there

Half a million new Spaniards who vote without ever setting foot in Spain

The grandchildren law is not handing out passports to exiles: it is handing them out, above all, to descendants of economic emigrants who never lived in Spain. That, and nothing else, is what has reignited the controversy. The case making the rounds is that of Diana: she never resided in Spain, her grandparents left as minors in the early 20th century —before the Second Republic— and both she and her son are now Spanish citizens. "The Consulate didn't ask me for a single document," she sums up.

Exile and economic emigration are not the same thing

Those who left before 1936 were looking for work, not asylum. The law, however, lumps them all together. That is where the friction begins: for some analysts, the law confuses two distinct historical phenomena and turns historical memory into a wide-open door. Against that argument stands another: the descendants did not choose the date or the reason for their grandparents' journey.

An electoral roll that includes people who do not live in Spain

The figure that raises the temperature is half a million people added to the electoral roll. The harshest thesis holds that this contingent alters the electoral balance through postal voting and that their status should be reviewed, even up to revoking their citizenship. There is no final ruling and the process remains open.

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Under these rules, each consulate works as a distant ballot box that no one fully audits. The prediction, with caveats: if the roll of non-resident voters becomes entrenched, no party will govern while ignoring half a million voters who do not live in Spain or pay taxes there. The legal outcome remains to be written.