President signs law taxing church restitutions

President Miloš Zeman has signed legislation enabling the state to tax church restitutions, according to an official press release from Prague Castle. Communist deputies say the highly controversial law, which had to go through a second vote in the Chamber of Deputies in late April after it was vetoed in the upper-house, could retain CZK 380 million from the annual CZK 2 billion pay-outs the state has pledged to undertake until 2030.

Opposition parties including the Mayors and Independents and the Christian Democrats are planning to issue a complaint to the Constitutional Court, which they hope will invalidate the legislation.