Friday, September 07, 2012

Duka agrees to Klaus' demand on church property return

Czech President Vaclav Klaus's demand for a guarantee that the bill on church property return will not break the 1948 deadline seems adequate, Prague Cardinal Dominik Duka told journalists at a harvest festival Saturday.
 
"We consider the statement or letter of the president adequate. It may reassure society that the deadline of February 25, 1948 is not being broken and that the (church restitution) bill is in line with all the other laws," Duka said.

Klaus said on Wednesday he would not sign the law on the return of church property unless Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) guarantees that it would not break the 1948 deadline.

Critics of the bill say it may enable churches to reach also their former property that the Czechoslovak government nationalised in 1947, but that was not formally transferred to the state after the early 1948 communist coup.

If the churches regained such property, noblemen, some religious orders and Germans transferred from Czechoslovakia after WW2 might challenge the then president Edvard Benes's post-war decrees stripping them of property.

Klaus presented his demand in a letter posted on his website and addressed to Necas and deputy prime ministers Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) and Karolina Peake (LIDEM). 

Necas, Schwarzenberg and Peake are also the leaders of the three coalition parties that are pushing the bill through parliament.

Klaus said Saturday he did not receive any guarantee from Necas so far.

Klaus said he talked to Duka at the harvest festival Saturday. He said Duka, too, understands the urgency of the demand that wants to avoid "the breaking of everything, or the principal challenging of all our country."

Necas confirmed on Wednesday that he received Klaus's letter. He said he would react to it only after he studies it well.

Finance Minister and TOP 09 deputy chairman Miroslav Kalousek told the Friday issue of the Pravo daily that Klaus's condition is "meaningless and unconstitutional" and that he would totally ignore it, if he were the party head.

In his letter, Klaus says the breaking of the deadline would considerably exceed the property settlement between the Czech state and churches. It would be a precedent with hardly predictable consequences for property claims raised by heirs from home and abroad, he adds.

Klaus recalls in the letter that he insisted on these guarantees in the past, especially by signing the Lisbon Treaty only after an opt-out for Czechs was agreed on.

Klaus then feared that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is a part of the Lisbon Treaty, would enable the families of Germans, who had lived on Czech territory and were moved out from the country after World War Two, to challenge the postwar deportation.

The lower house of parliament will be dealing with the bill at its session opening next week again, after the upper house, dominated by the left-wing opposition, vetoed it.

The government coalition hopes to win enough support for the bill, but it is one vote short the absolute majority needed to to override the upper house's veto. Moreover, some ODS MPs are also critical of it.

If Klaus rejects the bill, the lower house may override his veto, too. Klaus may also decide not to add his signature under the law, which would be a rather symbolical step that would not prevent the law from taking effect in any way.

Necas's government considers the bill on church property return one of its crucial steps.

On Thursday, the Czech Bishops' Conference headed by Duka agreed that the February 1948 deadline, which is a general threshold for the return of property, will not be broken by the passing of the legislation.

The bishops also confirmed the structure of controlling mechanisms the Catholic church will use when administering the property that is to be returned to it from the state.

Under the government bill, Czech 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 opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) sharply criticise the government-proposed property return to the churches, especially the financial compensation. 

The CSSD calls the government bill a gift to the churches in its campaign ahead of the autumn Senate and regional elections.