The parliamentary leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Hugo Soares, congratulated himself, this Wednesday, for the "historical agreement" reached between the Government and the teachers, leaving criticism of the previous governments of the Socialist Party (PS), but also of the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof). This position was transmitted by Hugo Soares, in statements to journalists, in the Assembly of the Republic. "Historical agreement reached yesterday by the Government of Portugal, namely by the Minister of Education, with the teachers' unions, with a large majority of teachers' unions," he began by saying. "It is not an agreement that benefits the Government or the unions, it is a historical agreement because it is a good agreement for public schools," he stressed, adding that "public schools are not defended with words, they are not defended with proclamations, they are defended with actions." Thus, the parliamentary leader of the PSD took the opportunity to launch a barb at the previous Executives. "For more than 10 years, teachers, in a way that I would say is fair, correct, have been debating, have been fighting, for an old claim, which they now see resolved by the AD Government. This Government in about 35 days managed to resolve what the PS Government in 3,050 days could not resolve," he said. Asked about the criticism from Fenprof, which was left out of the agreement, he said: "When everyone is going in one direction and only Fenprof is going in another, it is a case of asking if Fenprof does not feel like a car on the highway going in the wrong direction, but thinks that it is everyone else who is wrong". "It was a great day for teachers," he added. It is recalled that, on Tuesday, the Government reached an agreement with seven of the 12 trade union organizations representing teachers to recover the frozen service time during the intervention of the 'Troika'. The proposal presented on Tuesday by the ministry - which provides for the recovery of service time at an average annual rate of 25% between 2024 and 2027 - was accepted by seven of the 12 teachers' trade union organizations in the negotiation: National Federation of Education (FNE), National Federation of Education and Research (Fenei), Independent Union of Teachers and Educators (SIPE), Portuguese Federation of Education, Education, Culture and Research Professionals (Fepeci), National Union of Teachers Graduated by Polytechnics and Universities (Spliu), National Union of Graduated Teachers (SNPL) and Union of Basic Education Educators and Teachers (Sippeb). Left out were Fenprof, the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop), Pró-Ordem, the Union of Graduated Educators and Teachers (SEPLEU) and the Trade Union Association of Graduated Teachers (ASPL), which will now assess the possibility of requesting that a supplementary negotiation process be opened. The Government had started the negotiations by proposing the counting of service time at an average annual rate of 20%, with the most recent proposal, presented a week ago, providing for the return of 50% in the first two years, but maintaining the initially proposed five-year period, with the counting of 20% in 2026 and 15% in 2027 and 2028. According to the Minister of Education, the measure will cover about 100,000 teachers and, from 2027, when the full six years, six months and 23 days have been returned, it will have an annual cost to the State of 300 million euros, as the Executive had already estimated. Read Also: Recovery of teaching service time is "first step" in valorization (Portuguese version)