Social Democrats to push for more “narrow” opt-out if the party wins the next election

In related news, the Social Democrats have said they will push for a “narrowing” of the Czech Republic’s opt-out to the Charter of Fundamental Rights if they win the general election next year. On Friday, party leader Jiří Paroubek slammed the government for agreeing to the opt-out, saying the agreement should have applied only to the country’s Beneš decrees. The historic decrees sanctioned the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czech soil after World War II, and allowed for the confiscation of property. The government said on Friday that the opt-out, pursued by the country’s president to block property rights claims by Sudeten Germans, would not put Czechs at a disadvantage. The government also stressed that anything other than a general wording in the concession to the Czech Republic would have buried the Lisbon treaty.