4. We are entering a new, more complex and difficult phase. In these circumstances, the bourgeois and opportunist pressure for “national unanimity and unity” under the flag of the bourgeoisie with the aim to support its geostrategic upgrade is growing. Extreme bourgeois nationalism, especially in relation to the Turkish provocation, as well as cosmopolitanism or its opportunist expression “What do I care about their wars?”, “Let them agree on co-exploitation” are being used for this pursuit. The pandemic and the economic capitalist crisis that allegedly affects everyone —the monopoly groups, the working class, and the popular families— were also used as a pretext for “national unanimity and unity”. At the same time, especially after the sentence of the Golden Dawn as a criminal Nazi organization, the voices in the bourgeois camp saying that “after we got rid of black fascism, now is the time to get rid of red fascism” became louder. In particular, the celebration of the Polytechnic Uprising in November 2020 triggered a new wave of anti-communist offensive, the theory about activities “on the fringes of constitutional legitimacy” returned, the attack against the Party and the class-oriented labour and trade union is escalating, and state violence and repression are intensifying.

In parallel, the competition between SYRIZA and New Democracy (ND) in the alternation of government is a source of ideological–political reformist and opportunist pressure on the Party’s circle of influence, in conditions of long-term legality for the Party, the retreat of the revolutionary movement, and the overthrow of the first historical revolutionary circle of socialist construction.

At the same time, this pressure is also exerted at the level of the international movement, as it is dominated by the strategy of reforms in one form or another (“anti-neoliberal”, “anti-fascist– democratic”, or their combination), or even as a choice of another “centre”, e.g. China or Russia, overlooking their capitalist character. And all this despite the significant efforts of the Party at an international level, the struggle in the framework of the International Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP), the European Communist Initiative (ECI), the International Communist Review (ICR), the regional meetings, and especially the bilateral relations.

At the same time, the conditions of COVID-19 have had a further negative effect, as a greater and more stable effort is needed to prevent mass organizations from paralysing, to maintain their operation and activity, observing scientifically substantiated public health protection measures.

Under these circumstances, the task defined by the 20^th Congress as “the comprehensive steeling of the Party and KNE” proves to be much more complex and demanding.