Finance Minister voices support for heavy tax on church restitutions

Finance Minister and ANO leader Andrej Babiš has rejected criticism from his coalition partner Christian Democrat leader Pavel Bělobrádek who on Thursday suggested M. Babiš should consider resigning amid suspicions of subsidy fraud for his Stork’s Nest farm. Mr. Babis said that if anyone was destabilizing the ruling coalition it was Pavel Bělobrádek and, in what is widely viewed as a tit-for-tat move, said that he would support the Communist Party’s proposal to level a heavy tax on church restitutions. This is a particularly sensitive issue for the Christian Democrats who earlier made it clear that they would regard this as a violation of the coalition agreement.