Deputy PM comes out against current church restitution plan

Leading Civic Democrat and Deputy Prime Minister Vlastimil Tlustý has suggested that the government’s church restitution plan may be illegal. The comments represent a serious blow to the government plan to compensate the church for confiscated property under the communist regime. The proposals were pushed by the coalition Christian Democrats and highlight continued infighting within the fractious coalition. Specifically, Mr Tlustý stated in an interview with Czech Television that the way the government had calculated the property or financial compensation which the church is set to receive is against the principles which underpin the concept of restitution and may be illegal. Mr Tlustý has been a consistent critic of the current plan, last week joining forces with the opposition Social Democrats and several other Civic Democrat MPs to put the brakes on the proposals as they currently stand.