Ayuso accuses the Government of altering the electoral register with the “Grandchildren Law,” and the Foreign Ministry calls it a “major hoax”

Eduardo González The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, warned consuls this Monday that granting Spanish nationality “to those who do not deserve it” under the Democratic Memory Law is “illegal.” In its response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that the so-called “Grandchildren Law” was “approved by Congress in 2022” and stated that “linking it to an attempt to alter the electoral register is a major hoax.” “Every consul and every official who grants nationality to someone who does not deserve it must know that they would also be doing something illegal, and there stands our warning,” Díaz Ayuso declared during her speech at a colloquium organized by the Association for the Progress of Management (APD). “Multiplying government agents in Spanish embassies to manipulate the rules of the game and the allocation of seats is, I would say, illegal and stems from the Prime Minister's intention to change the electoral register,” she continued. “The Government cannot have the power to arbitrarily assign provinces based on the vote count, depending on where it lacks the necessary votes to obtain the next seat,” added the Madrid president, who also linked the extraordinary regularization of migrants to the Government's attempt to alter the electoral register. In response to these statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejected “the accusations and insinuations by the President of the Community of Madrid that consuls and Spanish foreign service personnel might not be complying with the Law.” “These statements are completely unacceptable and unbecoming of a public official, and we demand an apology to these Spanish public servants who at all times not only scrupulously comply with the law, but also perform an irreplaceable task for Spaniards living abroad,” Foreign Ministry sources told The Diplomat. “Likewise, linking the Democratic Memory Law, approved by Congress in 2022 and in line with similar laws in European countries whose citizens suffered forced exile due to a lack of freedoms, such as Germany, Italy, and Portugal, with an attempt to alter the census, is a major hoax,” they warned. According to the Foreign Ministry, “voting abroad is legally regulated and complies with all constitutional guarantees of electoral integrity, with Spain ranking among the top countries in the world for electoral integrity, such as the Electoral Integrity Project.” “Regarding consuls and nationality processes, it is emphasized that those in charge of consular offices are career diplomatic officials and always comply with current regulations in the exercise of their functions,” it concluded. The Law of Grandchildren and Feijóo The Law of Democratic Memory, which replaced the Historical Memory Law of 2007, came into force in October 2022 after being approved by the Congress of Deputies and the Senate at the proposal of Pedro Sánchez's government and with votes against it from, among others, the People's Party and Vox. The law grants Spanish nationality to "those born outside of Spain to a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, who were originally Spanish, and who, as a consequence of having suffered exile for political, ideological, or religious reasons, or due to their sexual orientation and gender identity, have lost or renounced their Spanish nationality." The deadline for applying for Spanish nationality under the Law ended in October 2025 with a total of almost 415,000 applications granted. 42% of the applications were submitted in Argentina. In statements to EsRadio, the leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, asserted this Monday that the Grandchildren Law is an "electoral ploy" implemented by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to grant voting rights to 2.5 million people in a very short period. "There is a clear interest in acquiring new voters because the numbers don't add up with the current ones," he denounced. "There has never been a case in our democracy where the number of Spaniards has increased by 2.5 million in just one year," he continued. Later, the PP's national spokesperson, Borja Sémper, clarified Feijóo's remarks and stated, without endorsing the accusations of "rigged elections" from Vox, that his party "does not prejudge the voting intentions" of these supposed 2.5 million new voters.

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