Czech opposition fail to have church restitution debate adjourned

The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, started discussing the closely watched bill today.

The bill, providing for the state returning to churches the property confiscated by the Communist regime, met with strong criticism from the opposition irrespective of Culture Minister Alena Hanakova´s assurance that churches probably will not demand all property whose return the bill enables.

CSSD deputies´ group head Jeronym Tejc made use of a moment when the left-wing opposition deputies outnumbered the government deputies in the conference room and proposed that the Chamber decide on adjourning the debate.

However, lower house chairwoman Miroslava Nemcova (senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) waited to start the vote only after the government deputies turned up to reject Tejc´s proposal by their votes.

The junior opposition Communist Party (KSCM) proposed that the Chamber reject the bill on church property return.

On behalf of the KSCM, deputy Vladimir Konicek challenged the volume of the property, worth 75 billion crowns, that the government wants to return to churches. He also cast doubt on whether the churches´ claim is justifiable.

The KSCM also voiced objections to the government´s way of calculating the financial compensation that is to go to churches for the property that cannot be returned.

The bill reckons with the state paying 59 billion crowns as compensation over the next 30 years. The inflation included, the sum may climb to 78.9 to 96.4 billion crowns.

"The bill´s goal is to remove the giant stone that has been burdening the country for more than 20 years," said Hanakova (TOP 09).

She said the bill must be passed in view of the 2010 verdict by the Constitutional Court (US). Without the relevant law, churches may claim property return in court "very spontaneously" on their own, Hanakova said.

She said the biggest portion of the returned property are forests that make up almost 6 percent of forests in the Czech Republic.

"At the same time, it is probable that churches will not claim the return of as much property as the bill enables to be returned," Hanakova said, without elaborating.

The bill reckons with 17 churches and religious groups applying for property return next year.

Deputies Marek Benda (ODS) and Katerina Klasnova (junior ruling Public Affairs, VV) emphasised that the bill´s main objective is not the return of property to churches, which is inevitable anyway in view of the US verdict, but the end of state subsidising churches from its budget.

($1=19.202 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz