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The party emerging around deputy prime minister Karolína Peake has sent a request for official registration to the Ministry of the Interior. A petition requesting the registration of the LIDEM party was signed by 1,700 people. The ministry will have one month to register the party. The faction consists of MPs and cabinet members from the Public Affairs party who split in protest of the party’s methods and leadership. Members include Transport Minister Pavel Dobeš and Regional Development Minister Kamil Jankovský.

Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek received the Order of the British Empire on Monday. At a ceremony at the UK embassy in Prague, the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra was praised for his promotion of Czech and British music abroad and received the honorary rank of Commander. The honour comes as Bělohlávek, who is 66, prepares to leave the BBC orchestra in order to head the Czech Philharmonic from September.

Attending a two day NATO summit in Chicago Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas said his country was open to negotiations about more money for Afghanistan, but said it was too early to talk about a specific sum. He stressed that the Czech Republic’s main priority was fulfilling its military commitment in Afghanistan where it currently has more than 600 troops. The Czech prime minister also warned that it would be a mistake for the allies to try and “buy their way out” of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, noting that such a move could have tragic consequences.

Washington is pressing its NATO allies to make a financial commitment to help cover the 4.1 billion dollars per year that will be needed to sustain Afghanistan’s large army and police force after the majority of international troops withdraw in 2014. Securing adequate funding for those security forces is seen as a top priority at this summit. A number of countries, including Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, have already made long-term commitments of at least 100 million dollars per year

Vojtěch Filip has been re-elected chairman of the Communist Party. He beat his sole rival Stanislav Grospic in the second round of elections getting 275 votes to Grospič’s 168. The old-new chairman made a rousing speech at the two-day party conference saying the time was ripe for revolutionary changes and accusing the centre right government of impoverishing the vast majority of the population. The Communist Party now has 26 seats in the 200-member lower house but opinion polls have seen it gaining strength – one of the most recent surveys showed it second only to the Social Democrats with 14 percent of the vote.