The debate on Spanish nationality has fully entered the political agenda after Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced that the PP is preparing an organic law to regulate its granting, maintenance, and loss. The popular leader proposes that nationality can be withdrawn from people who, after obtaining it, belong to criminal or terrorist gangs or are repeat offenders in serious crimes such as sexual abuse, rape, or murder. Feijóo argues that nationality constitutes an "act of trust" that must be maintained as long as the citizen meets the conditions associated with it.
The proposal has generated a legal debate about how far such a reform can go. Martín Pallín, emeritus magistrate of the Supreme Court, was emphatic when asked about the legality of the measure: "In the Francoist Code, there was the penalty of loss of nationality." He then recalled the international framework subsequent to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and focused on one of the main limitations: a person cannot be deprived of nationality to leave them without any nationality.
"You cannot make him stateless"
Pallín expressly cited article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the right to a nationality and establishes that no one can be arbitrarily deprived of it. His argument focuses especially on the possibility that an eventual withdrawal of Spanish nationality leaves the affected person without another nationality.
"What cannot be done is that if you take away their nationality, you make them stateless," the magistrate maintained. This protection also appears in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, ratified by Spain, whose article 8 establishes as a general rule that States shall not deprive a person of their nationality when that loss would render them stateless, although it contemplates specific exceptions.
The Spanish constitutional framework itself also introduces a fundamental difference. Article 11.2 of the Constitution establishes that no Spaniard of origin may be deprived of their nationality, while the first paragraph refers to the law for the regulation of the acquisition, conservation, and loss of nationality.
The legal limit of Feijóo's proposal
The question, therefore, is not simply whether a reform could modify the grounds for loss of nationality for certain naturalized citizens. In fact, there are European countries that contemplate mechanisms for loss of nationality in exceptional circumstances, especially related to terrorism, treason, or fraud in its acquisition. The legal debate is on what grounds Spain could establish, whom the measure would affect, and what guarantees should accompany it.
Feijóo has announced that the PP will work on an organic law to specify these grounds and has defended that his proposal will take as reference the legislation of other European countries. Meanwhile, Martín Pallín's words place the focus on the constitutional and international guarantees that any modification would have to respect, especially the prohibition of generating situations of statelessness.
