The Constitutional maintains the prohibition of voting for the naturalized with the 'clean law'

MadridThe Constitutional Court halts the appeal for protection (recurso de amparo) filed by the Ombudsman against the Supreme Court's decision to suspend the right to vote for people nationalized under the Grandchildren Law who have not proven they are descendants of exiles. Therefore, there will be 163,000 people with Spanish nationality – 0.41% of the census – who will not be able to vote in the general elections on November 29 if they do not prove that they meet the requirements. Ángel Gabilondo denounced that the Supreme Court's decision violates the rights to equality, participation in public affairs, and effective judicial protection. However, the court of guarantees considers that it is still premature to study the appeal because the Supreme Court opened a period for allegations and, therefore, the ordinary path to appeal the decision has not yet been exhausted. The Ombudsman warned that not allowing them to vote would be an “irreparable injury” because citizens would not be able to vote retroactively, but the appeal for protection did not even pass the first filter and has been dismissed.

Ten of the twelve magistrates were in favor of the dismissal, while the other two, from the progressive bloc, have announced dissenting opinions in favor of studying the appeal, according to Efe. Sources from the Spanish government have respected the decision made by the TC for "procedural reasons," although they hoped that, when the merits of the case are addressed, whether by the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court, it will be made clear that "the right to vote cannot be suspended en masse with a precautionary measure, without a final judgment and without a hearing for each affected person." "There cannot be second-class citizens with different rights," they insisted from Moncloa.

In this sense, Ángel Gabilondo urged the Constitutional Court to act quickly in the face of an “exceptional urgency” to “preserve the right to active suffrage without limitations not provided for in electoral regulations.” His appeal intended for the Central Electoral Board to keep Spanish citizens residing abroad registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA) because the precautionary measures to exclude them generate an “undoubted legal uncertainty” and an “excessive intervention in the framework of the exercise of fundamental rights.” The census for November 29 closes next Saturday, October 24.

The Ombudsman stressed that the “link between being Spanish and voting” is “indissoluble” and demanded to guarantee the “maximum effectiveness of the democratic principle of political participation”. “The status of voter cannot be lost by any Spaniard as long as they remain one,” he added. Likewise, he warned that the way to request information from consulates to prove the status of descendants of exiles “does not seem likely to yield quantitatively significant results in the coming dates”.

“The only legal way”

Subsequently, an affected citizen –a private individual of Argentine origin, naturalized in 2025 and defended by the firm of former judge Baltasar Garzón– joined the Ombudsman's appeal. The document, to which ARA has had access, warned that the Supreme Court's decision is “irreversibly influencing” the electoral procedure, argued that the measures requested by the Ombudsman were “essential” and “the only legal path” to guarantee the right to vote, and asserted that the Constitutional Court's ruling is the “proper mechanism” to “safeguard it”.

In parallel, last week, the Center for Descendants of United Spaniards filed allegations with the Supreme Court against the suspension of the right to vote. For their part, Iustitia Europa and Vox –the two parties that prompted the decision– demanded guarantees that the high court's decision will be complied with. But there have been more movements. After the Central Electoral Board agreed to send electoral documentation to all those registered in the CERA with a “warning of the possibility of suspension of electoral rights,” Iustitia Europa believes that the electoral boards should have “nominative, matching, and permanently updated information” regarding the registrations that are suspended.

On the eve of the Constitutional Court's deliberation, Alberto Núñez Feijóo expressed confidence that the Ombudsman's appeal would end up buried. “They will not dare to commit such nonsense,” said the PP leader in an interview on COPE. “No one in Spain will dare to issue a manifestly unjust resolution,” he added.

A judge in Madrid will investigate Óscar Puente's sister

Before the Constitutional Court's decision was known, it became known that Madrid's investigative court number 35 has admitted for processing a complaint from the ultra group Hazte Oír against Sofía Puente and will investigate her because it believes that the facts “present characteristics that suggest the possible existence of the crime of administrative prevarication”. She is the sister of Minister Óscar Puente and was the Director General of Legal Security and Public Faith when she signed the instruction that complemented the Democratic Memory Law. The Public Prosecutor's Office had requested that the complaint be rejected.