KDU-ČSL (Christian Democrat) Chairman Jiří Čunek said failure to pass the law would be a serious issue within the coalition. Jan Kasal, also a KDU-ČSL deputy, threatened to vote against an ODS’s (ruling party) health reform package to retaliate.

Under the proposed law, the government would return 83 billion Kč ($5 billion) worth of church property over 60 years, plus interest, that the former communist government took from the church.

The law failed to pass the first reading after Vlastimil Tlustý and four other ODS deputies voted with the Social Democrats, the Communist Party and other opposition members to delay the issue until June.

Tlustý, who claims that the property values are incorrectly based on market prices, wants the government to reveal how it arrived at the the proposed price. Other property restitution cases have not been based on market prices, he said.

"I truly wish the law to pass, but no one can pay our 83 billion Kč for no reason," he told the Czech News Agency.

But others say Tlustý is playing a dangerous game. He is more interested in breaking up a fragile government coalition than in the fairness of the church property prices, said Petr Nečas, ODS’s deputy prime minister.

"Whomever votes with the Communists and Socialists wants to break up the government," Nečas said.

According to Ondřej Plašil, another ODS deputy, Tlustý's motives are more personal.

Plašil says Tlustý wants to take revenge on Czech Prime Minister Miroslav Topolánek for not naming him finance minister after Tlustý devised an economic strategy which helped him win the 2006 elections.