Spain's grandson law was used to chase hundreds of thousands of votes

The newspaper THE OBJECTIVE has published files from the Consulate in Mexico which, according to its reporting, show naturalizations of people without documentary proof of Spanish ancestors. Sofía Puente's instruction at the Ministry of Justice relaxed the evidentiary requirements set by the law.

The controversy over the grandson law has a name and a document attached. **THE OBJECTIVE** has gained access to files from the Consulate in Mexico which, according to the outlet, show that the Government is naturalizing foreigners who do not meet the requirements of the law. These are people who provided no documentary proof that their ancestors were Spanish or that they left the country because of the Civil War.

## The instruction that relaxed the evidence

The origin lies in the eighth additional provision of the Democratic Memory Law, known as the grandson law. Building on that text, **Sofía Puente**, then head of the Directorate General for Legal Security and Public Faith at the Ministry of Justice, drafted an instruction that drastically lowered the evidentiary demands of the law itself. That directive was approved without proper procedure and without going through the Spanish Parliament, according to the published information.

The consequence, again according to those files, is a leaky pipeline of naturalizations whose validity is now under judicial scrutiny. The outlet does not specify how many individual cases it has reviewed or the total number of people affected.

## The electoral roll and the vote, outside what is documented

Naturalizing people living abroad has administrative and also electoral effects: whoever obtains nationality can register on the electoral roll and vote in future elections. That link is what fuels the suspicion of electoral use of the law. It is worth separating levels: what is documented so far are files with insufficient evidence, not a proven manipulation of the electoral roll.

## What the law says versus what the instruction says

The grandson law requires proving the link to the Spanish ancestor and, where applicable, exile. Puente's instruction would have relaxed that burden of proof until it became practically unnecessary, according to THE OBJECTIVE. The gap between what Congress approved and what was applied in the consulates is the core of the matter.

If this affects you as an applicant, consult a lawyer specialized in nationality before taking action.