France strikes: Paris protest chaos as Macron crisis ERUPTS – explosive scenes

France’s hard-left unions rallied supporters today, as they marked the 36th consecutive day of the strike – making it one of the longest in the country’s history. Railway works gathered in front of the Gare de l’Est railway station in Paris and threw the national transport system into chaos as hundreds gathered to protest of Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform. Police fired teargas at protesters in Nantes in a brief skirmish while in Bordeaux, Marseille and Toulouse, workers waved union flags and trailed smoke flares as they protested peacefully ahead of a demonstration in Paris later in the day.

CGT union boss Philippe Martinez said the country can expect to see over 200 demonstrations across the nation today, in protest against a “bad” reform.

He told Europe 1 radio: “You stop a protest movement when workers feel their demands are on the table.

“We’ve had no response from the government.”

The main protest is taking pace in Paris, with rallies held in other major cities including Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Rennes.

Unions have already called for another day of mobilisation on January 11.

The stike could extend to flights and maritime transport as unions representing air traffic controllers and port workers have joined the strike.

The protests come after Mr Macron announced plans to overhaul the pension system by rolling 42 different plans into just one universal plan.

The plans would also see pension payouts calculated from salaries from across the whole career instead of just the last five years of activity, which unions say would result in much smaller payouts.

Mr Macron claims the myriad special benefits handed out to different types of worker deter mobility within the job market.

The strike has hit transport in Paris the hardest and commuters on Thursday again grappled with skeleton services on suburban and metro lines.

Power sector walkouts saw electricity production fall by about a 10th, or nearly seven gigawatts.

Support among the French public appears to be falling, as an Ifop poll released on Sunday be Le Journal du Dimanche found that only 44 percent of French people back the strike, down seven percent from the previous survey carried out before Christmas.

The survey also found that three quarters of those surveyed believe that Mr Macron will not cave.

source: express.co.uk