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The so-called "grandchildren's law" — the eighth additional provision of the Law of Democratic Memory — has ignited an intense political battle in Spain, with mutual accusations regarding whether the government of Pedro Sánchez is using mass naturalizations to manipulate the electoral roll ahead of the upcoming general elections.
The leader of the Partido Popular (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, made the most direct accusation to date in an interview with EsRadio on Monday: “What lies behind this is a clear interest in obtaining new voters. Since the current voters don't add up, let's see if by fabricating voters the numbers work out.” The PP's offensive, reported by ABC and the EFE agency, marks an escalation in the stance of the main opposition party, which until now had maintained a more cautious tone.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, went further and directly warned consular officials: “Every consul and every official who grants nationality to those who do not deserve it must understand that they would also be doing something illegal. And that is our warning.” Ayuso also highlighted that Buenos Aires could become the third Spanish constituency in terms of voting numbers, given that the five Argentine consulates have accumulated 462,815 nationality applications.
The Government responded through its spokesperson, Elma Saiz, describing Feijóo's statements as a "major irresponsibility" and defending the regulation as a measure based "on the principles of redress and justice" for the Spaniards who left the country due to the Francoist dictatorship.
The PP MEP Alma Ezcurra, responsible for the party's immigration area, expanded on the allegations on social media: "When we want to know if someone is manipulating an election, we always look at the ballots, the ballot boxes, or the counting. But there is a quieter way: deciding who gets on the electoral roll." Ezcurra also pointed out that the Government would have hired the company Ineco —linked to the ex-partner of former minister Ábalos— to outsource the process and achieve a million granted nationalities by 2027.
Vox has been maintaining the most extreme accusation for months, denouncing a possible "vote-rigging". Its spokesperson requested on Monday to temporarily suspend the instructions from the Ministry of Justice that grant nationality to descendants of 19th-century emigrants, arguing that an administrative order cannot change a law approved by the Parliament. The party has already challenged the 2022 Law of Democratic Memory before the Constitutional Court.
The controversy has a particularly significant dimension for Cuba. According to an investigation by ABC, the Spanish Government awarded contracts worth 1.6 million euros to Grupo Palco, a company subordinate to the Cuban Council of Ministers and linked to the military conglomerate GAESA, to hire 107 support workers for the Spanish consulate in Havana. The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, summarized the situation on social media on June 22: “Paying the Cuban dictatorship to help with its electoral fraud.”
The problem is exacerbated because Cuba is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, making it difficult to independently verify the authenticity of the documents required to prove Spanish ancestry. The consulate in Havana has accumulated over 137,700 official files, with estimates raising the number to as many as 350,000 initiated procedures, and applicants receive responses such as, "Due to the volume of files, this process may take several months."
Globally, around 2.5 million people have applied for nationality through this route since the law came into effect in October 2022. The deadline for new applications definitively closed on October 22, 2025, but the flow of resolutions —approximately 34,000 in just the first quarter of 2026— keeps the debate alive. The denial rate is a mere 1.3%, and the organization Iustitia Europa filed a complaint on Monday with the Central Electoral Board questioning the criteria for assigning voting provinces to the newly naturalized individuals, warning that the census of Spaniards abroad already exceeds 3.2 million registered.
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