The chairman of the opposition People’s Party, Marian Jurečka, wants to reduce pensions for exponents of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. People who served in designated positions, such as the government, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, or the intelligence services, would not be retired as a so-called insurance period. Jurečka stated this on his Twitter account today. He submitted the proposal to the Chamber of Deputies as an amendment to the government’s proposal, which will add 300 crowns to pensioners above the statutory valorization from next January.
In support of his proposal, Jurečka states that persons who participated in the persecution of citizens or in the suppression of human rights, such as party workers or security staff, were paid above average wages. These were not only above-average salaries but also social benefits for them and family members or guarantees of higher old-age and retirement pensions. However, according to him, these privileges are undeserved, unjust, and immoral. The aim of his proposal was to remove undeserved benefits provided in the pension system to former top representatives of communist power and its apparatus in the security forces.
His proposal is also to affect members of the former State Security, the General Staff Intelligence Service, or the border guard intelligence units. It would also affect the then deputies of the Czech National Council or the Federal Assembly. The period spent in these and other specified functions is called Jureček’s proposal, and the period of this service would not be included in the period of insurance. A register of these persons would be created by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, which would issue a certificate of service. An entry in the register would be excluded from judicial review. It would only be verifiable to confirm the institution if the person concerned sued the decision of the competent institution to reduce the pension.
The government draft, in which Jurečka wants to insert his proposal, is heading to the second reading when it is possible to submit amendments. It will be decided upon in the final approval.
A similar law was approved by the Slovak parliament in June. The Slovak law will affect the pensions received by former members of parliament and members of the government in communist Czechoslovakia, former members of the communist secret police StB, some former security officials or members and employees of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and the Communist Party of Slovakia, the fall of communism in 1989.