News · Migration
Spain has until Wednesday to hand over the list of 163,020 citizens naturalised under the 'grandchildren law'
The Supreme Court demands the list of names by 15:00 on Wednesday, October 28, under repeatable fines of 1,000 euros. The Foreign Ministry opened consulates over the weekend. Only 91 exile certificates have been issued and Cuba is one of the countries most affected.
Spain's Foreign Ministry ordered its consular offices to work on Saturday and Sunday in order to hand over, before Wednesday, October 28, the list of names of the 163,020 people naturalised under the 'grandchildren law' whose right to vote on November 29 was provisionally suspended, according to an EFE report carried by CiberCuba.
On Thursday the administrative chamber required ministers José Manuel Albares and Félix Bolaños to provide the list under coercive fines of 1,000 euros, repeatable, and with the possibility of referring the matter for criminal liability. The court called it 'incomprehensible' that it had not been handed over and warned that 'these people may end up being unable to exercise their right to vote because of the administration's own inaction'.
As of October 21, consulates had reviewed 31,390 files, 19% of the total, and issued 91 certificates attesting to family exile. The review is manual for those naturalised between 2022 and 2024; only those processed in 2025 and 2026, some 70,000 people, are in the digital system.
Cuba is one of the countries most affected. Spain's Consulate General in Havana received more than 107,000 citizenship applications during 2025 alone, and more than 350,000 Cubans are estimated to have begun proceedings since the law took effect in October 2022.
The measure does not annul citizenship or revoke passports: it restricts voting on November 29 from abroad. Those living in Spain vote without restriction; those living in Cuba need the consulate to issue a certificate stating that their ancestor went into exile for political, ideological, religious or sexual-orientation reasons.
Albares acknowledged on October 19 that it would be 'very difficult' to verify the files in time, and the consular affairs directorate estimated the process would take 'at least until January'. Days earlier the Constitutional Court rejected, by 10 votes to two, the appeal by the ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, as premature.
Sources: CiberCuba · El Español
Data updated: 2026-10-26T04:15:00.000Z