BOJNICE, a small town in central Slovakia dominated by its castle, is set to witness a protest on Saturday October 19.
The Vzdor (Resistance) civic association, which promotes communism, is organising a gathering to protest against the demands of the Baťa family, who recently announced they would pursue their request to have the property they lost during nationalisation under the communist regime returned to them, the SITA newswire reported.
Heirs of Czech businessman Jan Antonín Baťa, who once oversaw the Baťa shoe company’s global empire, will seek compensation from the Slovak government for property confiscated in the wake of the Second World War as part of the infamous Beneš.
In April, a Bratislava district court exonerated Baťa of wrongdoing and cancelled a 1947 court ruling that sentenced him to prison and ordered the forfeiture of assets. Since then, the family has considered pursuing compensation for the assets seized in 1947. An attorney representing the family has valued the family’s assets in Slovakia at €1 billion. The family owned factories in Partizánske, which was known as Baťovany or Baťa Town until 1949, as well as Svit, Nové Zámky and Bošany, and a set of other properties including the famous Bojnice Castle.
The Vzdor movement put their demands together and sent them to the president, the government and parliament in an open letter, saying that returning the Bojnice Castle to the heirs of the Baťa family is equal to robbing the working people in Slovakia.
“All this property comes from the work of people - workers and other employees - not from the business activities of the Baťa family,” the SITA newswire quoted from the letter.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
