The fragile center-right Czech coalition survived to live another day on Wednesday after the smallest government party, Public Affairs (VV), fell into line with an already agreed deal to compensate the Catholic Church and other religious groups for communist-era confiscations.
Public Affairs had been trying to reopen the restitution deal over the last days, calling for the government to give more details of where the funds to compensate the religious organizations will come from and suggesting that a government reorganization and merger of ministries might be called for to save funds for the settlement.
Prime Minister Petr Nečas (Civic Democrat, ODS) finally warned on Monday that he would dismiss ministers who failed to back the restitution deal, an ultimatum which threatened to bring the government down if Public Affairs stuck to its anti-restitution line.
VV, whose leadership was shown to be split down the middle over the issue on Tuesday, caved in over the PM’s threat with a unanimous vote in the Cabinet Wednesday for the already agreed church settlement.
‘The key thing is that the government was able to come together over an agreement to return property to the church.’
“The key thing is that the government was able to come together over an agreement to return property to the church,” Nečas said if the post-Cabinet press conference.
Recently appointed Minister of Culture Alena Hanáková (TOP 09-STAN), whose party predecessor in the ministry last year thrashed out the deal after around 20 years of wrangling between churches and the state, said, “I think that this is an historic event and shows the solidarity of the coalition.”
Meanwhile, VV chairman Radek John said the party won guarantees ahead of the Cabinet vote that ordinary Czechs would not be hit hard by the restitution deal.
Promises were made that funding of the police, schools, pensions and social benefits not suffering as a result of further spending cuts to find cash for the religious groups, he said.
Head of the VV parliamentary group and behind the scenes party boss, Vít Bárta, acknowledged that the party had been forced to retreat faced with the prime minister’s ultimatum.
“We were faced with a Sophie’s Choice,” he said, referring to the award-winning film. “The price of instability in the Czech Republic during a period of crisis would have been higher than the Kč 2 billion a year [which restitution is expected to cost].”
Czech daily Lidové noviny reported Wednesday that Public Affairs’ climbdown over restitution had been helped by a behind-the-scenes deal under which Nečas agreed to back Education Minister Josef Dobeš (VV) in return for it dropping its resistance to restitution.
Dobeš is currently under pressure over his ministry’s handling of EU funds and is promising to step down if European Commission concerns result in substantial funds destined for the Czech Republic being withheld.
The restitution deal would force the state to pay out Kč 59 billion over 30 years and return 56 percent of confiscated property, estimated to be worth around Kč 75 billion, much of it forests and farmland now being managed by the state forestry company Lesy ČR, and the Czech Land Fund (PF ČR).
The Catholic Church will be the biggest single beneficiary of the compensation for property confiscated by the former Czechoslovak communist regime after February 1948.
Unpopular compensation
The clearest reason for Public Affairs’ attempts to drag out discussions over restitution would be a bid to strike a chord with the public for a party whose fortunes have sunk fast since being elected for the first time to parliament in mid-2010 on an anti-corruption ticket.
Surveys have regularly shown around two-thirds of Czechs opposed to handing back large amounts of cash and property to religious groups.