Comrades and friends, It is in the link with the masses, the knowledge of the concrete reality and the ability to intervene and transform it that the Party's social, political, ideological and electoral influence depends on. The link with the masses is both an objective of the Party's action and the source of its strength.

Comrades, When we talk about the role of cadres, we are talking about the structural base of our Party. They, the cadres, are the factor on which all our action, intervention and party activity is based. Without them, without the many, many thousands of comrades - men, women, young people - who drive our Party, who give it body, who give it life, who make it work, our Party would not be in a position to respond, as it has responded, to the problems it faces.

Comrades, Portugal is an impoverished country, with deep injustices and inequalities. The purchasing power of wages and pensions is languishing; public services (including the NHS and public schools) are degrading; housing is increasingly expensive. The economy is not improving, but the profits of the big economic and financial groups continue to break records. Those who rely on their work to live and who create the country's wealth or have worked during their lifetime, continue to see the results of their labour serving only to fatten the profits of the few.

Taking initiative with the youth. This is the task at hand, to which JCP is committed every day, in thousands of conversations, in the contacts collected, in organizing the day and hour of struggles, in the unionization of every young worker, when we invite a friend to participate in the construction of Festa do Avante!, or when we propose they join JCP and take action, in the party of the future and of the youth: the Portuguese Communist Party!