Environment2023

Drought, wildfires and rising temperatures

One of Portugal’s oldest environmental groups Quercus has marked the end of 2023 with the best and worst environmental events of last year.

The creation of more marine protected areas (especially in the Azores), the rejection of a mega solar farm by the Portuguese Environment Agency APA – planned to cover an environmentally sensitive water catchment area in the Algarve – and the growing mobilization of civil society for environmental issues were seen as the most positive aspects.

But there was more good news at the local level. In September six Portuguese youngsters went to the European Court of Human Rights accusing 32 EU states of inaction on climate change. They argued that the government’s failure to reduce emissions violates their human rights.

The government raised the target of using electricity from renewable sources by 2030 to 85%, according to a revision of the National Energy and Climate Plan. Nowadays renewable energies account for 61% of electricity consumption in the country (wind energy 25%, hydroelectric 23%, solar 7%, and biomass 6%).

In terms of nature conservation and biodiversity, the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Development Commission had a negative opinion of the company Secil, which wanted to increase its exploration in the Arrábida National Park for cement production.

In 2023 the lynx population in the country continued to increase and 21 breeding pairs of Iberian imperial eagles were counted in the Alentejo province, showing that these species are recovering.

In the group of the worst environmental events Quercus stresses – in addition to big fires such as the one in Odemira, drought and rising global temperatures – the felling of trees in the name of energy transition and the EU’s approval of the herbicide glyphosate for another ten years.

‘This decision comes as a surprise given the growing scientific evidence of the health risks of the fertilizer that has been classified as carcinogenic to animals and is suspected of causing Parkinson’s disease in humans’, says the Quercus, pointing out that the highest level of contamination was detected in Portugal, with 30 times above the legal limit.

For next year, Quercus emphasizes the urgent need to end the use of fossil fuels – as defined at COP28 – improving policies for the conservation and restoration of ecosystems, better performance in waste management, and the implementation of structural measures in the face of water scarcity – especially in the south where the drought has hardly improved despite the autumn rains.

Boa semana                 Enjoy the week                     (Público/Sapo)


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Cesariny

‘Em todas as ruas te encontro – On every street I encounter you’
(from: Pena Capital, 1957)

To celebrate the centenary of the birth of Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos (1923-2006), the country will mark a year of reflection on the work and life of its most famous surrealist poet, activist, and painter.

Last month the festivities reached the capital with a major exhibition ‘O Castelo Surrealista’ (the surrealist castle) at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) – until the 18th of February. Some new publications are also in the pipeline as well as a series of lectures, concerts, and performances throughout the country.

At a very young age, Mário Cesariny learned chiseling to continue his father’s trade, goldsmithing. He didn’t like the subject and entered the Lisbon Conservatory (piano major). During the war, he was shown surrealist magazines from Paris by friends and became captivated by those anomalous texts and images.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, he was initially interested in neo-realism, a movement dominated by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), that positioned itself as a viable alternative to the official art of the fascist Estado Novo (New State) of Salazar. But he left the movement soon after because of its fidelity to the representation of people in paintings and its stylistic dictates, including the obligatory use of figuration.    

In 1947, he got the chance to spend some time in Paris, where he visited the International Exhibition of Surrealism organized to reinvigorate the surrealist movement that had been on the verge of disappearing during the war. There he met André Breton, the founder and leader of the French surrealists, and later that year founded the Portuguese Surrealist group (Os Surrealistas).

In 1950, his debut poetry collection ‘Corpo visível’ (visible body) was published outside the censorship of Salazar’s dictatorship. He lived in London and Paris, sometimes for longer periods, to be free of the intrusiveness of the PIDE (secret police) as they kept an eye on him because of his homosexuality and political ideas.

‘Surrealism is a way of transforming life and the world’, he used to say.
‘It is one of the two great revolutions of the 20th century, the other is Lenin’s.’

Only in 1961, when the repressive regime had somewhat softened, his poems were published by an established publisher in Portugal. In 1974 – when the Carnation Revolution liberated the country from the fascist terror – he participated in the Poetry International festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands after which all his work was published and he was able to make trips to Spain, England, the US, and Mexico.

Cesariny was first and foremost a great poet. Public recognition for his pictorial work came later with the EDP Grand Prize for painting in 2002. That same year, a major retrospective exhibition of his paintings and other visual work was held in several Portuguese museums and an oeuvre catalog was published.
But he also was an excellent translator of poetry, translating work from Rimbaud, Novalis, and Breytenbach.


Happy Holidays         Boas Festas                (pic Público/Zucamag)




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Cascais

‘One of the most innovative cities’

Cascais is a town in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, situated on the western edge of the Tagus river, between the Sintra hills and the Atlantic Ocean. It has about 225,000 inhabitants and is one of Europe’s oldest holiday resorts.
The municipality is one of the wealthiest in the country – ranking third on the list of the ten most expensive streets in Portugal – and famous for its quality of life.

The name ‘Cascais’ appears to derive from a plural derivation of cascal (monte de cascas), signifying ‘a mountain of shells’, referring to the abundant volume of marine molluscs harvested from the coastal waters.

Its history as a popular seaside resort originated in the 1870s, when King Luis I of Portugal and the royal family made the town their residence every September, turning the quiet fishing village into a cosmopolitan destination at the same time attracting members of the Portuguese aristocracy, who established a summer community thereby building impressive mansions in a wide-ranging style, many of which are still to be seen.

Another important step in the development of the area was made in the first half of the 20th century with the building of a railway from Lisbon to Cascais and the construction of a casino in neighbouring Estoril, which inspired Ian Flemming to write his first James Bond novel in 1953, Casino Royale.

Due to Portugal’s neutrality in World War II and the town’s royal past, Cascais became home to many of exiled royal families in Europe – including those of Spain, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria – and Estoril a centre of international spies and diplomatic secrecy. Many of the places that saw German, British and American spies walk around still exist in Estoril about which the Cascais Tourist office (www.visisitcascais.com) published a small guide (rota misteriosa dos espiões).

Nowadays Cascais is considered to be one of the 50 most innovative cities in the world for its energy transition and climate action policies. It was the first municipality in the country to have hydrogen-powered buses circulating and leading the way as a smart city by using GPS locators.

After a wave of thefts of various palm trees, Cascais City Council decided to put GPS tags on some of its most valuable species in the Avenida 25 de Abril, one of the main roads in the city centre, that was recently upgraded and landscaped for 70,000 euros with several hundred tree species, in particular young palm trees. And with success. One of the stolen trees could be detected in the house of a military man.

And finally, chronic and long-term inpatients at the José de Almeida hospital in Cascais can now be visited by their pets. The first visit took place this spring when a 77-year-old patient received her four-year-old dog Nino. According to the hospital employees, the woman – admitted to the Internal Medicine unit after suffering a stroke – articulated more sentences during the encounter with her dog than during her whole stay in the hospital.


Enjoy the week            Aproveite a semana               (pic Público/Sapo)









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Dependency

‘In Portugal, every half hour at least one person dies from smoking’

Despite restrictions imposed in recent years, the prevalence of tobacco consumption in Portugal increased from 48% to 51% and that of alcohol consumption from 49% to 56% in the past five years, according to the 5th National Survey on Psychoactive Substance Use in the General population.

Tobacco is the second most widespread psychoactive substance (after alcohol), with about half of the adult population declaring to have smoked at some point in their lives. However, the good news is, that young adults between 15 and 35 don’t seem to be keeping up with the upward trend. In this age group tobacco consumption fell from 37 to 28%, and in girls even to 20%.

More than 80% of the Portuguese consider themselves exposed to tobacco smoke outdoors, a percentage that places Portugal among the EU countries with the highest level of exposure, according to a study by the University of Beira.

These figures come at a time when the government has approved a proposal to amend the Tobacco Law, equating heated tobacco with conventional tobacco, limiting the points of sale and places where smoking is permitted, banning smoking on hospital and school grounds, outside cafés and restaurants and on covered terraces.

‘Our tobacco law proposal is not prohibitionist’, declared Margarida Tavares, State Secretary for Health in Parliament. ‘What we want is to regulate and help those who want to quit smoking.’ Unfortunately, the definitive elimination of smoking will – according to the proposed law – only come into force in 2030! ‘We’ll give business time to adapt’, she said.

Contrary to a decrease in smoking, alcohol consumption is rising in youngsters. Nine out of ten 18-year-olds say they have taken alcohol in the 12 months prior to a survey carried out by the Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Intervention Service (SICAD). For the first time consumption among girls surpassed that of boys.

Although the prevalence of binge drinking (rapid and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages to reach drunkenness at least once in the last year), has remained stable (around 10% in the general population), more than one-third of the 18-year-olds admitted to having drunk alcohol in a ‘binge’ way in the past 12 months.

Furthermore, the survey points to an significant increase in dependent alcohol consumption (from 2% to 3.5%) in the past five years. ‘We must detect these patients and treat them,’ said Joana Teixeira, a psychiatrist at Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital, to avoid an increase in diseases attributable to alcohol, such as liver cirrhosis, vascular diseases, and certain types of cancer (i.e. breast cancer in women).

But despite the increase in alcoholic consumption, the government maintains its resistance against public health warnings on the labels of alcoholic beverage bottles just like the Republic of Ireland has done. According to the Ministry, such warnings are ‘incompatible’ with EU regulations and against the interest of the national wine sector, since the export of Portuguese wine is worth almost one billion euros per year.


Enjoy your week                   Aproveite a semana      (pic Público/Sapo)
















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Bobi

No stress, fresh food with fish and vegetables and a daily walk in nature

Bobi, the oldest dog in history, died last month on the 21st of October 2023, at the age of 31 years and 165 days.
He was awarded the title ‘oldest dog in the world’ by the Guinness Book of Records in February last year when he was 30 years old.

Bobi lived a quiet life in Conqueiros, a village in the municipality of Leiria, with the Costa family, eating mainly food for humans. He was lucky to have made it as the Costa children had to hide him for some time as the family had too many animals and the litter of four puppies was due to be euthanized.

The newborn dog was kept hidden for some time (hence his preference for human food), before becoming the longest-living pet in the Costa household.

He is described as a Rafeiro do Alentejo, a Portuguese guardian dog (named after its area of origin, the Alentejo province in southern Portugal). Dogs of this type were traditionally kept to protect flocks. In 1954 the breed was officially acknowledged by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale.

His 31st birthday was a relatively busy affair with about 100 guests coming from all over the world wanting to take pictures of him. Even so, he managed to eat his favorite dish of grilled pork and fish, enjoyed a folklore dance put in his honor, and took several naps during the day.

Veterinarian Peter Dobias flew in from Canada with his dog Pats for the event which he described as inspiring. ‘We would all love our dogs to live long. They say if you don’t have friends you have a 50% chance of encountering more health problems. Bobi has friends and an amazing family teaching me how to take care of my dog.’

Other veterinarians present at the birthday party in Leiria declared that the secret of the dog’s longevity must lie in a calm life without stress, a rich social life, non-processed fresh and diverse human food with everyday fish and vegetables from the organic garden, and daily nature walks with his owner Lionel, who got Bobi when he was 8 years old.

Guinness World Records are looking into claims after skepticism over whether the Portuguese mastiff really lived over 31 years.

Danny Chambers, a vet and member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons said: ‘this is the equivalent of a human living over 200 years, which is completely implausible’ adding that Bobi’s example had been taken up by anti-pet food zealots ‘who are campaigning that dog food is killing pets’.


Enjoy the week            Aproveite a semana               (pic Público/Ptresid)







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Transport

In 25 years Portugal invested three times more in roads than in railways

European governments have systematically neglected their railways and starved them of funding while pouring money into expanding their road network, according to research from the German think tank Wuppertal Institute and T3 Transportation in collaboration with Greenpeace.

In 25 years (1994-2018), the lengths of motorways in the EU, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK grew 66%, while railways shrank 6,5%. For every euro the governments spent on building railways, they spent 1.6 euros on building roads. At the same time, European governments shut down more than 2,500 train stations since the mid-90s and 13,000 km of regional railway lines.

In the four years that followed (2018-2021), only seven countries invested more in rail than roads – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the UK – while the rest continued spending more on roads than rail.

Between 1994 and 2018, Portugal increased its road network by 2,378 kilometers (over 300%), while the railway network decreased by nearly 20%. In the same period, Portugal invested three times more in roads than in railways (23 billion euros vs 7.5 billion).

As to the length of motorways in Europe, Portugal showed the third highest growth, after Spain and France. With regard to the reduction of the railway network, Portugal had the third largest, after Latvia and Poland. During that period of time, the number of passengers on Portuguese trains has fallen and eight lines (450 km) have been deactivated, affecting approximately 100 thousand people.

Nowadays the only direct train between Portugal and Spain is between Porto and Vigo, whereas a high-speed rail connection between Lisbon and Madrid is delayed for years.  

In the post-Covid 19 period (2022 –2023) emissions from road transport in Portugal have increased by 6% compared to the pre-pandemic period (2018 –2019) states the environmental association ZERO, at the same time warning of the threat to climate targets. ‘Emissions associated with the consumption of diesel and petrol in road transport are continuously increasing despite the fact that fuel prices are historically high.’

The association attributes this increase to several causes, among them the fact that former public transport users switched during the pandemic to private cars to reduce the risk of contagion of Covid-19 and the departure of thousands of residents (around 70,000 between 2019 and 2022) from Porto and Lisbon due to sharp rise in housing prices, increasing commuting by car. Moreover, there has been an increase in the number of tourists visiting rural areas by car, further away from Lisbon, Porto, and Farro airports.

Simultaneously, the number of deadly road accidents increased by 10% this year compared to the same period last year. The biggest increases were in accidents involving motorcycles and bicycles.

The environmental NGO criticizes the recommendations announced by the government in the 2024 State Budget to include discounts on toll roads, widening of congested roads, and reduction in fuel prices.
‘These measures keep the economy and society hostage to fossil fuels and are contrary to the National Energy and Climate Plan for 2030 and the new European Renewable Energy Directive.’

Enjoy the week                     Aproveite a semana      (pic Público/Sapo)









  





























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Portuguese

‘Portugal is still a backward country’ – Elisa Ferreira (EU commissioner)

Portugal is about twice as big as the Netherlands and has 10 million inhabitants, of which 2 million live abroad. Last week – on the 5th of October – Republic Day was celebrated, memorizing the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910.

Since the Carnation Revolution in 1974, urbanization has increased at the expense of the countryside, and the coastal region has become more densely populated, younger, and richer. The two metropolitan areas of Lisbon (at the Tagus river) and Porto (at the river Douro) – cover 5% of the territory, half of the population, and more than 50% of the gross domestic product, an important indicator of economic wealth.

The isolated geographical position (‘where the land ends and the sea begins’) and the struggle to escape poverty and overcome the scarcity of natural resources have always been a constant in Portuguese history. It stood at the origin of the Portuguese discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries and was the cause of successive waves of emigration.

The impossibility of combining national sovereignty with regular trade relations with Spain has pushed the country towards the Atlantic and Britain was Portugal’s main trading partner for centuries. The importance of this relationship dates back to the Treaty of Windsor in 1386.

During the Estado Novo of dictator Salazar and despite the political affinities of the two autocratic regimes, Portugal and Spain kept their backs turned and trade relations between the two countries remained almost non-existent until their entry into the European Union. Nowadays, Spain is the main market for the Portuguese export of goods.

The small size of the economy and the awareness of its economic backwardness in relation to the more developed European countries is a fundamental feature of the Portuguese identity.

As said, things changed in 1986 when Portugal was integrated into the European community. Businesses got access to the latest technologies and global markets and European funds made it possible to catch up with the huge backlog in infrastructure ( i.e. roads) and education.

Paradoxically, progress did not lead to equivalent production growth, and Portuguese workers were long seen as good professionals in tasks that did not require high qualifications (construction, cleaning, clothing industry).

The poor growth and the financial crisis at the beginning of the 21st century lowered the country’s expectations. Many citizens lost confidence in the country’s ability to change and innovate. This loss in confidence was one of the reasons why nearly half a million Portuguese emigrated between 2010 and 2020. It also reflects the giving up of many Portuguese to change their country.

Progress was also not able to solve one of the biggest problems in society: the high incidence of poverty among the young and the elderly. Portugal is one of the most unequal countries in the EU. Being born into an economically and socially disadvantaged family is practically a condemnation and hard to tackle in a low-growth economy.

Demographic projections point to an accelerated aging and ‘shrinking’ of the population. An older population tends to be more resistant to change and innovation, which can be an obstacle to productivity growth. More innovation and investment in workers’ skills will be essential to offset the negative effects of population decline and aging.

Over the past decades, the Portuguese have accumulated one of the highest debts in the EU as a percentage of GDP. The rise in debt has coincided with a fall in savings which became one the lowest in the EU. High debt and low savings make households more vulnerable to shocks, such as the debt crisis in 2011 or the Covid-19 pandemic.

The country has definitely undergone profound economic and social changes but as long as the most qualified young people emigrate, Portugal will continue to live below its means. This is not just a failure of the economy but also of the Portuguese democracy.

Enjoy the week                               Aproveite a semana












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Courtcase

Governments are trivializing young people’s concerns about the climate crisis 

Next Wednesday – on the 27th of September –  32 countries are being taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg by six Portuguese youngsters. They will argue that the nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.

After another summer in which wildfires raged across the Mediterranean, the young people will plead that the government’s failure to act quickly enough to reduce emissions is in violation of their human rights. It is the biggest climate case yet taken across the globe, unprecedented in its scale and consequence.

Lawyers of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) – representing the six young people taking the legal action – are to present evidence that the current policies of the 32 countries mean the world is on track to reach a catastrophic 3 degrees of global heating within their lifetimes.

A senior lawyer of GLAN said the action was being taken against the 32 nations in Europe because they all contributed to the climate crisis. ‘These young people face a future of unbearable heat; the IPCC report describes these conditions as unliveable,’ he declared. ‘Yet these governments are trivializing their claims’. The Portuguese government, for example, stated that the claim consisted only of ‘future fears, constituting only mere assumptions or general probabilities.’

Aged from 11 to 24, the Portuguese youngsters – who began their action six years ago – say they were driven to act by their experiences in one of the most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the country’s history that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying about 20,000 hectares of forest.

‘The thing that scares me most is that it has all got worse since the fires in 2017,’ one of the claimants said.
‘We have had record-breaking heatwaves since then but European governments are choosing not to take their part.’

Crowdfunded (https://www.crowdjustice.com) by people around the world who have donated more than £100,000, the six youngsters are seeking a binding ruling from the 17 judges to force the countries to rapidly escalate their emission reductions.
The countries named in action are the 27 members of the EU as well as Norway, Russia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Turkey.

A victory would be groundbreaking as the decisions of the court are binding across Europe.

Enjoy the heat                       Aproveite o calor          (Pic Público/Sapo)



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Compostela

Most Portuguese pilgrims depart from Porto

The pilgrimage to the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia is world-famous. It is believed that the remains of Saint James the Apostle are buried there.

St. James the Great was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus and the first to be martyred. He preached the gospel in Hispania but returned to Judea upon seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary on the bank of the Ebro river. He is the patron saint of Spain.

St. James was called the Great because of his length rather than his importance. He was the brother of John the Apostle. It is said that James and John asked Jesus to grant them seats on his right and left in his glory. Jesus rebuked them by saying the honour was not even for him to grant.

King Herod had St. James beheaded ( AD 44, Jerusalem, Roman Empire) and his remains were later transferred to the place where nowadays the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral stands.

The traditional pilgrimage to the grave of the saint – also known as the Way of St. James – has been the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the Early Middle Ages onwards. Rembrandt depicted the saint as a pilgrim in 1661. The feast of St. James is celebrated on July 25, Galicia’s national day.

The most famous starting point is in France.
Caminho Português (the Portuguese Way) is the second-most popular route, starting in Lisbon (about 610 km) or Porto (about 230 km) and passing through characteristic cities and beautiful vineyards.

While starting in Lisbon, pilgrims will walk through Santarém – a medieval town full of Gothic architecture – and Coimbra – holding one of the oldest universities in the world.

From Porto, the route will go through the Vinho Verde vineyards in the Minho region, the city of Barcelos – famous for its Portuguese rooster (Galo de Barcelo) and other pottery items – and cross the Lima river with its ancient Roman bridge.


Porto is the second city from which most pilgrims depart (over 40,000 last year) – after Sarria in Galicia, the most popular town on the French Way – according to statistics from the Cathedral’s Pilgrim Welcome Center.

Pilgrims should make the caminho with their Credential (pilgrims passport) that serves as a record and is stamped by certified people on the way. It entitles to the certificate of completion (Compostelais entitled), that is issued by the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

To be eligible for the Compostela, pilgrims must have completed at least 100 km by foot, or 200 km on horseback or bicycle.

Enjoy your week          Approveite a semana            (pic Ptnews/Wikepedia)





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Strikes

Portugal, a country of strikes

The first half of 2023 was marked by successive strikes covering numerous sectors. From train drivers to doctors and from teachers to journalists. Even police officers gathered to protest against the lack of their right to strike.

Discontent is high and workers ready to use their voice. Portuguese are of the opinion that life is generally going well but that their financial situation leaves much to be desired.

Looking at the figures from the Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations (DGERT), it is found that the number of strikes last year increased by 25% compared to 2021, being the highest since 2013 – at the time of the financial crisis. And in January this year, the number of strike notices almost quadrupled compared to the same month in 2022.

The year started with a strike by Comboios de Portugal (Portuguese Railways) for a pay rise to compensate for the loss of purchasing power and quickly spilled over to the other sectors of public transport. 

The 2023 judicial year opened with a strike in January, against the lack of staff, the freezing of promotions, and the degradation of justice that undermines the functioning of courts. It did not stop there, with more strikes in February and April. The effects of the strikes on the justice system are devastating with the postponement of thousands of hearings and trials in the courts.

Journalists are not left out of the fight, with TV1 going on strike in March for raises in payment, an increase in meal allowance, and 25 days of vacation. Employees from the news agency Lusa followed in April and announced new strikes in June and August and also RTP (Radio and Television Portugal) unions threaten to take action in the absence of their ‘decent’ requests.

In February, technical and administrative staff from three hospitals in Lisbon united, to claim a collective labour agreement in all State-run hospitals. A strike in March was suspended after the hospitals finally gave in to their demands.


Nurses started paralyzing services in February. There were massive demonstrations countrywide and even the private sector joined in for better pay and working conditions.

As for doctors, a national strike of two days took place in March over the ‘lack of measures’ in the SNS (National Health Service) and the ‘unacceptable proposal of the Ministry on salary scales. New strikes have been announced in August. 

For teachers, the second term started in January with strikes against the government’s proposals for the revision of the recruitment regime and for better career perspectives. 45,000 teachers signed a petition. They warned that the protest would not stop ‘any time soon’, and they were right.

There were massive demonstrations and strikes all over the country. Fenprof (Federation of Teachers) called for convergence between unions in defense of teachers’ rights and public schools.

Negotiations with the government are deadlocked and strikes are back and forth in the north, center, and south of the country. Developments that do not bode well for the coming school year. Between pressure, threats, and hopes, the teachers’ struggle reached Brussels, where they try to find the answers they do not have in Portugal.


Enjoy your week                   Approveite a semana               (pic Sapo)






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