Law 20/2022, of October 19, on Democratic Memory, has among its main objectives, the recognition of those who suffered persecution or violence, for political, ideological, thought or opinion reasons, conscience or religious belief, orientation and sexual identity, during the period between the coup d’état of July 18, 1936, the Spanish War and the Franco dictatorship until the entry into force of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, as well as promoting their moral reparation and the recovery of their personal, family and collective memory, adopting complementary measures aimed at suppressing elements of division between citizenship and promoting ties of union around constitutional values and principles.

Specifically, in its article 16, regarding the search for disappeared persons, in its paragraph 1, it provides that “The General Administration of the State shall be 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” and in the fourth paragraph of the same article, it establishes that “The activities of investigation, location and identification of persons disappeared during the War or subsequent political repression and whose whereabouts are ignored, carried out by the victims or those entities that include the development of such activities among their purposes, may count on the collaboration of the public administrations, within the framework of the public policy of the search and the financing established.

With regard to the search for missing 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 missing persons during the War and the Dictatorship, without prejudice to the powers of other public administrations related to this activity.

Taking into account the above, and taking into account the underlying reasons of social and humanitarian public interest, it is considered appropriate to participate in the execution of the work that will be carried out by certain local entities, linked to the search for remains of people, victims of civil war and dictatorship, contributing financially to them through the granting of these subsidies.

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 of Subsidies, the legal instrument used is determined by law and must take the form of a royal decree.

The main objective of the subsidies contained in the royal decree is to contribute financially to certain local entities to carry out tasks of locating, exhumating and identifying the remains of victims of the civil war and the dictatorship.

Because it 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 search, exhumation and identification of the mortal remains of retaliated persons and therefore, the granting of the subsidy is the most appropriate decision.