ADE says to Ayuso that consulates always act in accordance with the law, and Albares demands a public apology from Feijóo to the diplomatic corps

Eduardo González The Spanish Diplomats Association (ADE) has asserted that "public officials in Spain are fully aware that it is their obligation to comply with the law," in response to statements made by the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, regarding the possible complicity of consuls and officials in the government's alleged attempt to alter the electoral register through the Democratic Memory Law ("Grandchildren Law"). Meanwhile, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares criticized the PP's "great disloyalty" to Spain's foreign service and demanded a public apology. Last Monday, the president of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, declared to EsRadio that the "Grandchildren Law" is an "electoral ploy" implemented by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to grant voting rights to 2.5 million people in a very short period of time. "There is a clear interest in gaining new voters because the numbers don't add up with the current ones," he denounced. For her part, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, also warned on Monday that "every consul and every official who grants citizenship to someone who doesn't deserve it should know that they too would be doing something illegal, and that's our warning." Before the People's Party (PP), the first stone was thrown against the "Grandchildren Law" by Vox, whose parliamentary group's secretary general in Congress, José María Figaredo, declared this week that the law constitutes a "slow-motion coup d'état" and demanded its suspension and that Spaniards residing abroad be deprived of voting by mail, so that they can only vote in person at consulates or embassies. "These warnings are unnecessary because public officials in Spain are fully aware that it is their obligation to comply with the law," the president of the ADE, Alberto Virella, told La Sexta in response to Díaz Ayuso. He also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide them with "all the necessary information" about this process and to give them more resources to handle nationality applications. Meanwhile, in statements made on the TVE program ‘Mañaneros 360’, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares affirmed this Wednesday that “what the People’s Party and Mr. Feijóo are doing is a betrayal of the Spanish people.” “What the People’s Party wants is for three and a half million Spaniards to be unable to vote,” insisted the minister, who warned that “the vast majority of those Spaniards currently residing abroad are Spanish citizens by birth.” He also denounced the “enormous hypocrisy” of Feijóo and the People’s Party because “this law was precisely what they included in their 2023 electoral platform.” Specifically, the electoral program for the July 23, 2023 elections proposed guaranteeing the right to Spanish nationality for descendants of Spaniards through a "reformed Law on Access to Nationality for Grandchildren" and by "strengthening the Consulates responsible for processing nationality applications." Albares also criticized Feijóo's "great disloyalty" "towards the Spanish foreign service and the Spanish diplomatic corps, each and every one of whom are extraordinary professionals who scrupulously comply with the law and whose sole purpose is to defend Spaniards." "The People's Party is trying to intimidate the consuls by telling them they are taking note," he added, referring to Díaz Ayuso's words. "I demand a public apology from Mr. Feijóo to the diplomatic corps and the Spanish foreign service," Albares continued. “They are all people of impeccable integrity and extraordinary professionalism,” he added. Díaz Ayuso During a public event on Monday, Díaz Ayuso declared that “every consul and every official who grants citizenship to someone who doesn't deserve it should know that they would also be doing something illegal, and that's our warning.” She denounced that “multiplying government agents in Spanish embassies to manipulate the rules of the game and the allocation of seats is illegal and stems from the Prime Minister's intention to change the electoral register.” “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. In this regard, Alberto Virella warned, in statements to “El Periódico,” that “the choice of the province in Spain to which the vote is sent from the consulates is not discretionary.” “For electoral purposes, the municipality and province are determined by criteria of proven residency: the last registration in Spain of the Spaniard residing abroad, the demonstrable origin of their ancestors, or the province where they have an employment or other type of professional connection. Madrid is never the default location, and certainly not the one chosen by the official,” he added. Response from the Foreign Ministry In response to these statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejected “the accusations and insinuations made by the President of the Community of Madrid that consuls and Spanish foreign service personnel might not be complying with the law” and reiterated that “those in charge of consular offices are career diplomats and always comply with current regulations in the performance of their duties.” “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 blatant lie,” they added. 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 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 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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