The calculation the cabinet added to the bill on state-church settlement at the lower house'a request has not fulfilled the deputies' demands, Tlusty added. The bill is unacceptable until the way the government defined the returned property is clarified, Tlusty stressed. "The problem endures.
The addendum that we received did not solve the problem, but only deepened it," Tlusty aid. Under the bill, the state would return about one third of the property of religious orders the communist regime confiscated, while the rest would St Vitus's cathedral definitively belongs to Czech state -court ...
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New German Catholic Church Chief Stirs Up Traditions ... be compensated with 83 billion crowns. The sum would eventually climb up to 270 billion crowns due to interests over the next 60 years. Tlusty previously objected to both the sum and the 60-year payment scheme. Tlusty said today that all restitutions since 1991 were based on expert opinions and "tariff prices," but the government's calculation violated this principle. "The 83 billion is in market prices and it is contrary to restitution principles," Tlusty said. The addendum to the bill proves that the compensation to the churches was not based on any serious calculation, he added. Tlusty, along with another two ODS deputies and the left opposition, pushed through the postponement of the debate on the churches restitution bill until the cabinet added the calculation of the real estate and land for which the state is to pay compensation to the churches and a definition of the returned property, which the government did then. Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) told CT today he would like the Chamber of Deputies to complete first reading of the bill and send it to committees next week. Jehlicka reiterated that the government bill was a compromise. Opposition Social Democrat (CSSD) shadow culture minister Vitezslav Jandak supported Tlusty's objection. Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, Czech Catholic Church primate, said in the TV debate programme that the passage of the government bill on the property settlement between the state and the churches would definitively close restitutions and the Roman Catholic Church would not raise any other property claims afterwards. Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (KDU-CSL) said the government's proposal would be the most advantageous for the state. However, the opposition claims that the state would be more generous to the churches than to other entities claiming restitution of their confiscated property and would considerably burden next generations.
(Ceske Noviny)
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