Vlk, advocating the bill, under which the church is to gradually receive 270 billion crowns (including the interests) in compensation for its confiscated property in the following 60 years, points out that the Catholic Church has actually given up much of its former claims and that it plans to generously share Czech ruling party deputy not to support government's church bill ...
Czech senators to deal with Janackova's case next week ... the compensation with the other, minor churches in the Czech Republic, commentator Martin Weiss writes. Tlusty, a deputy for the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS), who is opposed to the bill, says the sum of compensation for the lost property has not been calculated according to the relevant legal guidelines, Weiss says. Both Vlk and Tlusty refer say their arguments are based on the law, but this is inappropriate in both cases, Weiss writes. By no means is it church restitutions that is the matter of the Vlk-Tlusty dispute.
Even the general property restitutions in the 1990s were no restitutions, as the relevant law spoke about the "mitigation of the consequences" of property wrongs caused by the Communist regime, Weiss writes. The enumeration of all individual assets that have been stolen would be long, he says. The government's bill is no restitution but a hybrid, which takes both the past and the future into account. Both the former volume of the church property and the churches' will to serve to people, how Vlk has put it, Weiss writes. As a result, a political agreement on a certain compensation sum has been struck. Tlusty's guideline tables are quite irrelevant in relation to it. It is an agreement whose implementation depends exclusively on the political will and also on political bargaining, Weiss writes. If the will lacks, there will be no barter, he concludes, alluding to the so far successful attempts by Tlusty and his allies to prevent the bill's success. Czech legislators showed arrogant contempt of people when they on Wednesday passed a bill against money laundering, which toughens the monitoring of financial transactions of top political officials and their relatives, but made the law binding only on officials working in foreign institutions, mainly MEPs, Pavel Verner writes in Pravo. The law does not allow banks to check transactions of members of the Czech parliament, Verner points out. This is as logical as if a restriction of the keeping of combat dogs were binding on chihuahuas but not on pitbulls, he says. The surprising transfers of money from the opposition to the government will thus remain a mystery, as well as the accounts of those who secure certain state orders for certain companies. No one can look into the accounts of Milos Melcak and Michal Pohanka, two deputies elected for the Social Democracy in mid-2006, who eventually helped their political rivals establish a centre-right government amid the post-election stalemate, Verner writes. People can be now sure that Czech deputies will not only never freeze their own wages or restrict their immunity as MPs, but they will not allow anyone to check them either, Venrer writes. The new institution of prompt punishment will raise viewers' attendance at sport events, Karel Steigerwald writes in Mlada fronta Dnes, referring to the plan to establish provisional courtrooms at stadiums during selected soccer matches so that the court can promptly punish the hooligans violating the law. The measure will be tested at the Sparta Praha-Banik Ostrava match today for the first time. If a rowdy throws a seat at a rival hooligan, he will instantly face a judge and receive punishment. This is a progress and a great comfort for rowdies, Steigerwald writes. However, even here the criminals will be in advantage compared to decent people who only want to get divorced, for example, he continues. The quick "trials" at stadiums do not involve the thousands of people who have been waiting for many years for court proceedings and a verdict. The newly introduced institution offers a chance to them how to wring their own court proceedings out. They should buy a ticket, break a piece of furtniture during a soccer match, kick an Ostrava fan, shout sport-racist slogans, and in a few minutes they would face the judge, along with their long delayed file concerning divorce, their dispute of a plot division or their request for the verification of paternity, Steigerwald writes. Attendance at soccer matches will increase, he adds ironically.
(Ceske Noviny)
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