Search Icon

Relatives of Spaniards who fled Franco granted citizenship

Hundreds of thousands of people whose relatives fled the Spanish civil war and Franco's dictatorship will be allowed to apply for citizenship.

Spaniards whose relatives fled the civil war and Franco will be allowed to apply for citizenship.
Spaniards whose relatives fled the civil war and Franco will be allowed to apply for citizenship. Credit: Photo: AFP

Up to 500,000 foreigners, many of them living in Latin American countries, can apply for nationality.

The measure particularly targets children and grandchildren of Spaniards who sought exile between July 1936 and December 1955.

That period covers not only the country's 1936-1939 civil war but also part of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco that lasted until his death in 1975.

Victims of both periods are recognised for the first time under the Law of Historical Memory, passed by parliament last year.

Historians have estimated that half a million people were killed during the war sparked by Franco's insurgency against the democratically elected left-wing Republican government.

Around the same number fled and most of their descendants now live in Latin American countries including Uruguay, Chili and Venezuela, with some 300,000 in Argentina alone.

Those who are eligible have until December 2010 to apply for citizenship – and need not renounce their original nationality.