Spain gives war exiles a path to citizenship

MADRID, Spain - Spain began allowing citizenship applications yesterday from the descendants of people who went into exile after its civil war. The government said that as many as 500,000 people could be eligible under the program to address the painful legacy of the conflict.

The government says 300,000 of those children and grandchildren of war exiles live in Argentina.

The Spanish cabinet approved the measure Friday under a law passed last year to make amends to victims of the 1936-39 war and the ensuing right-wing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.

Citizenship is being offered to descendants of people who fled because of political persecution or postwar economic hardship. Those who accept it will not have to renounce their current citizenship.

Last year's law, sponsored by the Socialist government, was highly divisive.

Opposition conservatives argued that it reopened old wounds in a country that was left in ruins by the war but struggled to avoid recrimination in the interest of rebuilding.

An estimated 500,000 people died, either in battle or from hunger or disease, and both sides committed atrocities. Those crimes were covered under an amnesty passed in 1977 after democracy was restored, two years after Franco died.

The 2007 legislation laid out broad outlines for atoning for the war's lingering aftermath. It included the idea of nationality for descendants of exiles, as well as renaming streets and plazas named for Franco, generals who fought with him and other close associates.