Law 20/2022, of October 19, on Democratic Memory, aims at the recovery, safeguarding and dissemination of democratic memory, 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.

For the purpose described, throughout the legal text, a series of measures are established, including those relating to the location and identification of missing persons in that period, which the aforementioned law establishes as a genuine public policy.

Specifically, in its article 16, on the search for disappeared persons, in its paragraph 1 it is provided “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 that activity” and in paragraph 4 of the same article, it is established that “The activities of investigation, location and identification of persons disappeared during the War or the 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 for persons established and the financing.

With this in mind, the project of royal decree aims to channel collaboration with certain local entities either directly or through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, subsidizing the activities of exhumation, location and identification of victims of the civil war and dictatorship as a means of reparation to their families and in any case as a work of the public policy of Historical and Democratic Memory.

Given the existence of sufficient reasons of public, social and humanitarian interest that justify the granting of subsidies directly and in accordance with the provisions of articles 22c) and 28 of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General of Subsidies, the legal instrument must be through a Royal Decree

This royal decree aims to contribute financially with certain local entities and also through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), to carry out search, exhumation and, where appropriate, identification of remains of people victims of the war in Spain and the dictatorship.

There are no other possible solutions since the direct economic contribution to local entities, either directly or through the FEMP, makes it possible to carry out work of exhumation, location and identification of remains of people victims of the War and the Dictatorship that if it were not received could not be done.