Spain: Supreme Court keeps voting-roll suspension for some Ley de Nietos citizens; challenge to the exile presumption still pending

Spain's Supreme Court has kept in place interim measures that affect people who became Spanish under the Democratic Memory Law (the 'Ley de Nietos'), but it has not annulled anyone's nationality.

What happened

• Two cases are pending before the Supreme Court's administrative chamber (recursos 1013/2026 and 1015/2026), linked to Central Electoral Board agreement 204/2026.

• On 10 September 2026 the court adopted interim measures suspending the electoral effects of certain registrations on the overseas voters' roll (CERA) of people who acquired nationality under the law's eighth additional provision.

• On 12 October 2026 it rejected the State Attorney's appeal against those measures and confirmed they also apply to the 29 November 2026 general election. One judge dissented.

What is actually in dispute

The core question is the administrative Instruction of 25 October 2022, which let officials presume that a Spaniard who left Spain between 18 July 1936 and 31 December 1955 went into exile. The challenge is whether an administrative instruction could widen what the statute requires. The suspension does not apply where the consular registry certifies that the ancestor's exile was proven without relying on that presumption.

What it means for applicants

• Nationality already granted has not been revoked. The interim measures act on voting-roll effects only.

• The merits are still undecided. A final ruling against the presumption could matter for the many files still in the pipeline: the court's orders cite about 96,895 approved applications awaiting registration and 304,272 awaiting a decision as of 31 August 2026.

• People who consider themselves affected may join the proceedings as co-defendants, with a lawyer and court agent, within five business days of the orders being published in the BOE.

• The application window under the law closed on 22 October 2025; this ruling does not reopen it.

This is an evolving court case and this summary is general information, not legal advice. Source: LawAndTrends analysis of the 12 October 2026 orders.