Summary by Roxana Barbulescu of the article on Elpais.com (full text in Spanish available here)

On 1 November 2011 the conservative party in Spain, the Popular Party announced in its electoral programme that if they win the elections scheduled for the end of this month they will change the citizenship law. The new law would introduce a citizenship test that would require “knowledge of fundamental values enshrined in the [Spanish] Constitution which are the base for our society as well as sufficient knowledge of the Spanish language, history and culture”. According to the Popular Party the proposed reform is motivated by the fact that “nationality became the aim of the journey for many immigrants in Spain and needs a redesign of proper formulas in order to transmit what it means to be Spanish” (PP Programme 2011: 124).

The proposition of the conservative party is a novelty in the Spanish context although there have been isolated cases of judges who have themselves took the initiative in applying such tests in small cities and in Barcelona. Recently, the newspaper El Pais noted that in Barcelona such a test has been administrated for two months and has included questions like “Where does the Road of Santiago end?” or “What could you bring to this country”? (El Pais: A Trivial Pursuit game to be Spanish available here)

Furthermore, the envisaged reform also mentions the possibility of naturalisation through a carta de naturaleza for the Latin American citizens who have served in the Spanish Army for at least two years. No change is proposed, however, with regard to the number of years required for citizenship acquisition for other groups. Thus, the proposed reform leaves untouched the gap between the 2 years period required for citizens of Latin American countries, Andorra, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal and 10 years required for other nationalities.

The Popular Party is expected to win the general elections the Socialist Party has not proposed any change to the nationality law in its programme.