Greetings to all of you for your presence and for the contributions you brought to this Public Session that discussed, in these times of epidemic, the worsening problems faced by our retirees and pensioners and the importance that the struggle has in their lives for the valorisation of their pensions and retirement and for the implementation of sanitary and health protection measures, which must be guaranteed and enhanced in this difficult situation we live in.

With regard to pensions and retirement, our commitment and our initiative aimed at valorising them are well known.

Today we mark the ninetieth anniversary of the Avante!, the central organ of the Portuguese Communist Party, which is proud to say that, in its long life, it fulfilled its role as a class-oriented newspaper, an irreplaceable weapon of the PCP to serve the workers and the people, without ever allowing itself to be subjected or intimidated by the terror of the fascist dictatorship or by the many attempts at silencing by the dominant ideology and powers.

After a long period with schools closed last year, the return to face-to-face teaching at the beginning of the present school year was a decisive step towards normalizing the teaching/learning process and enhancing the recovery of delays in the previous year.

Only in this way was it possible to guarantee that no student would be conditioned in monitoring the subjects taught, contrary to what had happened with a very significant percentage in the previous school year. A school year that the educational community in general evaluated negatively.

There is no period in the centenary life of this Party when the questions of this meeting – which highlights the valuable and indispensable intervention of communists in the trade union movement and their decisive contribution to the organization, unity and struggle of workers – were not always at the centre of its attention, concern and work.