The Secretary of State for Education stated that the union, which held a protest during today's meetings, did not demonstrate good faith and reiterated that negotiations will not occur under pressure. Alexandre Homem Cristo explained that the government's position is to avoid negotiations when there is pressure, which they felt was present during the protest. The Sindicato de Todos os Profissionais da Educação (Stop) did not attend the negotiation meeting after the government warned it would not accept the union's presence while the protest was ongoing. The Stop decided to maintain the protest instead of participating in the meeting. The government emphasized that any disruption affecting the negotiation conditions would prevent meetings from taking place. Following this incident, the Federação Nacional dos Professores (Fenprof) refused to meet with the government regarding the teaching career statute, deeming the government's decision “absolutely unacceptable.” The government aims to introduce changes to a mechanism allowing teachers without professional qualifications to conditionally join the Ministry of Education's staff, but unions are concerned about the lack of available places in professional training courses.