ČSSD wants court to abolish return of property to churches

Brno, Feb 18 (CTK) - The Czech opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) Monday lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court (US) demanding that it abolish the law on return of property to churches, head of the CSSD deputies' group Jeronym Tejc has told journalists.

The party disagrees with the conditions of the state-church property settlement, said Tejc, who filed the proposal on behalf of the CSSD deputies' group.

Under the law, which the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, definitively passed last November, 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 legislation was challenged earlier by another opposition party, the Public Affairs (VV). It gained support by some senators for its own complaint with the US.

The CSSD proposed that the law should be abolished as a whole.

"The law cannot be used for any other negotiations. A brand new mechanism of the calculation of the compensation should be set," Tejc said.

He said the sum the churches were to receive had been calculated in an unclear way, preferring some churches to others.

The Communists (CSSD) are drafting their own complaint as well.