International Brigade Memorial Trust
News report from the Agencia EFE Spanish news agency…
October 31, 2025
Madrid (EFE) - Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced that the Council of Ministers will approve next Tuesday the granting of Spanish nationality to the nearly 170 descendants of the International Brigades who have requested it under the Democratic Memory Law.
Sánchez made this announcement during the event held this Friday by the Government at the National Auditorium in Madrid in homage to some twenty victims of the civil war and Francoism on the occasion of the day of remembrance for this group, established in the aforementioned Democratic Memory Law.
"At the next Council of Ministers meeting, that is, next Tuesday, we are going to grant Spanish nationality to the almost 170 descendants of members of the International Brigades who have requested it in accordance with the provisions of the Democratic Memory Law," he said amid applause from the audience.
Sánchez added that "it will be an honor to be able to call them compatriots" and believes that the recognition of this "right" is a way to cultivate democratic memory.
The Civil Code recognises the possibility of granting Spanish nationality by royal decree in those cases where there are exceptional circumstances to be able to do so by naturalisation and without having to renounce their previous nationality.
The Democratic Memory Law states that these circumstances are applicable to the volunteers who were members of the international brigades that participated in the civil war, but also to their descendants "who demonstrate a continued effort to disseminate the memory of their ancestors and the defence of democracy in Spain."
This is a computer translation of this report.
If you want to apply for Spanish citizenship as a descendent of an International Brigader, contact the IBMT here.
