Royal Decree 204/2021, of March 30, regulated the direct granting of a grant to the Foundation of the Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos for the development of an execution project to enable access to the crypts of the Valley, measures for the dignification of the osarios and the exhumation and identification of the remains of victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship claimed by their relatives.

The main objective of the subsidy described in the previous paragraph was to carry out the necessary actions to try to locate and exhume the remains of people buried in the Cuelgamuros Valley, currently known as the Valley of the Fallen, in those cases that were requested by their relatives.

At the time, the amount of the grant was calculated taking into account a forecast of recovery of remains belonging to 60 people. Despite this, this figure has increased significantly in the last two years, to currently exceed the 160 requests for exhumation received from family members.

Therefore, to guarantee the continuity and completion of all pending works in the Valley, covering all requests, it is essential to increase the funding initially provided in Royal Decree 204/2021, of March 30, by granting a new subsidy to the Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos Foundation, with the same purpose and objectives.

With regard to the search for disappeared persons, article 16 of Law 20/2022 of 19 October on Democratic Memory establishes that the General Administration of the State is responsible for the search for persons disappeared during the War and the Dictatorship, without prejudice to the competences of other public administrations related to this activity, expressly providing in article 54 of the same legal text, the duty to attend to the claims and requests of family members that are intended to encourage the exhumation and delivery of the remains of the victims buried in the Cuelgamuros Valley, including for cases of technical impossibility of exhumation, symbolic measures and measures of symbolic character.

Taking into account the above, and taking into account the underlying reasons of public social and humanitarian interest, it is considered appropriate to participate in the execution of the aforementioned works, contributing financially to them through the granting of this grant.

Given the existence of sufficient reasons of public social and humanitarian interest that justify the granting of subsidies directly, in accordance with the provisions of articles 22.2.c) and 28 of Law 38/2003, of 17 November, General Subsidies, the legal instrument used is determined by law and must take the form of a royal decree, approved in the Council of Ministers, in this specific case on the proposal of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory and after a report from the Ministry of Finance and with the prior approval of the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service.

The main objective of this grant is to contribute financially to the work of exhumation, identification and dignification of remains that will be carried out in the Cuelgamuros Valley, upon request by the relatives of the victims.

Because this is a material action, the alternative of granting the subsidy would be the option of not granting it, and it must be concluded that the latter option would not make it possible to meet the defined objectives, nor to carry out the subsidized activities in this case, the identification of the mortal remains of retaliated persons, and that therefore, the granting of the subsidy is the most appropriate decision.