The Government disagrees with the Supreme Court's suspension of registrations in the census due to the grandchildren's law: "We do not share this decision"

"We do not share this decision contrary to the criteria of the Government and also that of the Central Electoral Board", this is how the minister spokesperson of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, reacted to the questions from journalists present at the press conference after the Council of Ministers on the recent precautionary suspension agreed by the Supreme Court in the electoral application of the so-called grandchildren's law, which affects registrations in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA). 

Thus, the Government has shown its discrepancies with the resolution of the so-called grandchildren's law, which is part of Law 20/2022, on Democratic Memory, and opened a path for certain descendants of Spaniards to obtain Spanish nationality of origin. The provision is designed to repair the consequences of exile caused by the Civil War and the dictatorship and contemplates, among other cases, descendants of people who left Spain for political, ideological, religious reasons or reasons related to their sexual orientation or identity. The norm establishes the period between July 18, 1936, and December 28, 1978, as a reference.

Vox and Iustitia Europa brought the conflict before the Supreme Court

The decision of the high court comes after the appeals filed by Vox and Iustitia Europa, which requested precautionary measures to prevent further registrations in the CERA while the dispute is resolved. Both parties questioned the way in which the regulations were being applied and focused on the consequences it could have on the electoral census.

The origin of the procedure is found in an agreement of the Central Electoral Board of last July 16. The JEC then refused to paralyze the preparation of the census, considering that the electoral administration should continue to apply the established procedures while they remained in force. At the same time, the body requested information from the Electoral Census Office on the application of the grandchildren's law.

The Supreme Court has provisionally agreed to "provisionally block the effects of the interpretation of the Law made by the former director general of Legal Security Sofía Puente", pending resolution of the merits of the case.

The decision comes after the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office argued before the Supreme Court that these citizens' access to voting should not be suspended. The Government argued that registration in the CERA is a consequence of having legally acquired nationality and warned that preventing it would affect the fundamental right to suffrage.

With this resolution, the Supreme Court does not yet resolve whether the interpretation of the regulations is correct, but rather establishes a provisional measure while analyzing the appeals. The central question now remains to determine which beneficiaries effectively meet the conditions provided by the Democratic Memory Law and, in particular, who can prove their status as descendants of exiles.