The PP accuses the government of altering the electoral census with the “Grandchildren Law” and the Foreign Ministry calls it a “major hoax”

Eduardo González Both the president of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, accused the government this Monday of using the Historical Memory Law as an "electoral ploy" to gain votes through naturalizations. In its response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out 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." In statements to EsRadio, 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 national spokesperson for the People's Party (PP), Borja Sémper, clarified Feijóo's remarks and, without endorsing the accusations of “rigged elections” from Vox, affirmed that his party “does not prejudge the voting intentions” of these supposed 2.5 million new voters. For her part, Díaz Ayuso warned this Monday, during her speech at a colloquium organized by the Association for the Progress of Management (APD), that “every consul and every official who grants nationality to someone who doesn't deserve it must know that they would also be doing something illegal, and there stands our warning,” declared Díaz Ayuso. “Multiplying government agents in Spanish embassies to play with the rules of the game and the distribution 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, based on where it lacks the necessary votes to obtain the next seat,” added the Madrid president, who also linked the extraordinary regularization of migrants with the Government's attempt to alter the electoral register. In response to these statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has categorically rejected “the accusations and insinuations made by the President of the Community of Madrid that Spanish consuls and foreign service personnel might not be complying with the law.” “These statements are completely unacceptable and unbecoming of a public authority, and we demand that she apologize 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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “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 diplomats and always comply with current regulations in the performance of their duties,” the Ministry concluded. The Democratic Memory Law, which replaces the Historical Memory Law of 2007, has been in force since October 2022 after being approved by the Congress of Deputies and the Senate at the proposal of Pedro Sánchez’s government, 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 or gender identity, have lost or renounced their Spanish nationality.” The deadline for applying for Spanish nationality under this law ended in October 2025, with nearly 415,000 applications granted. 42% of the applications were submitted in Argentina.

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