Deputy PM Peake admits new talks on church property return

Prague, Oct 23 (CTK) - Czech Deputy Prime Minister Karolina Peake (LIDEM) Tuesday did not rule out new talks of the government coalition parties on the form of the church property return since it is hard to accept it before the tax package and the 2013 state budget are passed.

If the government stabilisation package, including tax rise, were changed eventually, the form of the church restitution might be re-opened, respectively the whole legislation process connected with it, Peake added.

The Chamber of Deputies is to vote on the bill returning the former property confiscated by the communist regime to 17 churches again after the left-dominated Senate, the upper house, turned it down in the summer as expected.

Under the government bill, churches are to be returned land and real estate worth 75 billion and given 59 billion crowns in financial compensation for unreturned property during the following 30 years. The largest sum, 47 billion crowns, would go to the Roman Catholic Church.

The state is to gradually cease financing the churches. The transitional period is to last 17 years.

The left-wing opposition has sharply criticised the government-proposed property return to the churches, especially the financial compensation. Moreover, several civic groups protest against the bill. Public opinion polls have showed that a majority of Czechs are also against it.

"The church restitution has been negotiated for long. Not only parties but also representatives of 17 churches and religious societies are part of it (the agreement). To return it to the negotiating table is more complicated than to send the consolidation package back to talks. We would like to avoid it, but the possibility exists," Peake said.

On behalf of the junior ruling LIDEM, which has eight deputies in the 200-seat lower house, Peake reiterated that her party was prepared to support all agreements of the government coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and LIDEM, including the tax package and the church property return bill.

However, some deputies of the senior ruling ODS refused to support the unchanged tax package in the upcoming repeated vote with which PM and ODS chairman Petr Necas connected the vote of confidence in his cabinet.

Similar changes in the already closed legislation packages would have to be agreed on in the whole government coalition, Peake noted.

LIDEM does not have problems with the return of real estate to churches but the agreement on a financial compensation cannot be accepted without the passage of the tax package and the state budget, Peake pointed out.