"Collapse" in the Spanish foreign service: diplomats demand that Moncloa act

MadridWorking in the network of Spanish embassies and consulates is far from the idyll associated with diplomacy. This is what is denounced by both the personnel working for the State abroad and the representatives of Spanish citizens residing abroad who are users of this network. All of them have long been fighting for an improvement of resources in the face of the "collapse" they claim to be experiencing in consular services. "There is anger" with the ministry, diplomatic sources explain to el ARA, denouncing the indifference on the part of the Spanish government, despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assuring this newspaper that they are working to resize the service.

In recent years, two phenomena have occurred that have aggravated the situation: on the one hand, the number of Spaniards abroad has tripled, from one million in the 2000s to 3.2 million today; and, on the other hand, the increase in applications to access nationality following the democratic memory law for children and grandchildren of Spaniards who went into exile. A norm that was interpreted broadly and allowed applications from October 2022 to October 2025.

"The situation of the consular network has been very serious for a long time," states Violeta Alonso, president of the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad. Alberto Virella, president of the Association of Spanish Diplomats and former ambassador to Senegal, speaks of a "critical" state of the consular network, both from the point of view of human resources and the maintenance of buildings and the digitalization of administration. And he assures, like Alonso, that with the increase in the community abroad and nationality demands, they are even more on the edge: currently there is a backlog of 2.4 million applications for Spanish nationality that could take up to a decade. "Successive governments have not sufficiently taken into account the conditions of the State's general administration abroad," summarizes Virella, who believes that there is insufficient planning of available resources to execute the political decisions that are made. Right now, he says there are 1,000 diplomats for a Spanish population of 49 million inhabitants; a lower ratio compared to countries like Poland (37 million for about 1,700 diplomats) or Portugal (about 10 million inhabitants for 490 diplomats). Alonso adds the situation of the labor staff abroad, who assures that there are cases with very high temporality and without a collective agreement.

Fedeca (the Federation of Associations of Senior Civil Servants of the State Administration) has embraced the diplomats' demands, to the point that they recently denounced the "abandonment" of the foreign service. They cited the saturation of the consulate in Sao Paulo (Brazil) as an example, where they claim to serve "more than 1,000 people a day with approximately 70 workers".

Sources knowledgeable about the situation abroad also cite the city of Buenos Aires as an example, where they assure that if all applications are eventually accepted in a few years, it could become one of the cities with the largest community of Spaniards (around 800,000), including municipalities in the State. In fact, Violeta Alonso notes that Argentina is one of the most saturated places and highlights that they are content with the fact that these procedures take five years. Alonso assures that the democratic memory law has been a "success" –"the problem is not the increase in applications," she says–, but rather that the administration abroad is not properly resized because, as a result, usual services cannot be attended to. For example, the procedure to renew a Spaniard's passport abroad can take months. "There is an increase in the workload," states Virella, as a result of all these transformations, reminding that the administration must be able to guarantee the rights of all Spaniards, both within and outside the State.

Violeta Alonso gives the example of the right to vote: even though all Spaniards abroad can vote, participation is very low due to the difficulty of the procedures and is also unequal among different countries. This is even after the repeal of the proxy vote. In the last general elections, she notes, only 10% voted. In any case, Alonso is confident that the Spanish government will make decisions quickly to expedite the resolution of files under the Democratic Memory Law and alleviate the lack of resources.

The demands of diplomats

The Association of Diplomats has a list of demands and considers the following measures indispensable: the approval of a new regulation for the diplomatic career –the current one is from 1955, during the Franco regime–; the creation of 90 positions abroad; the incorporation of the specificity of civil servants abroad in normative production because they consider that the same staff cannot be applied abroad as in any other part of the State; or healthcare coverage, which is deficient especially for many diplomatic couples who have to travel with them to work abroad.

And what does the Spanish government say? Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consulted by ARA assure that they are working on a "structural resizing of the foreign service, adapting it to a growing Spanish community abroad". Despite the complaints of the diplomats, they say they have made an "extraordinary" reinforcement of the most saturated staff and that an "unprecedented digital transformation is being promoted to streamline procedures". To address the situation, the Association of Diplomats has met on several occasions with the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs –the last meeting was on January 19th– to discuss their demands, but they have not yet managed to meet with the minister, José Manuel Albares, nor with the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, despite the various requests they have made. "A lot of talk and little data, an irresponsible attitude from those in charge of solving a critical situation," summarizes Virella.