PARIS—More than one million French workers took to the streets for the second time in two weeks, piling more pressure on President
Emmanuel Macron
‘s plans to raise France’s retirement age and threatening further walkouts that could grind much of the country to a halt.
Striking teachers and railway, health and oil workers staged marches in dozens of cities as a part of a nationwide day of action called by unions to force the government to back down from its pension overhaul. Train, subway and bus services were severely curtailed, and dozens of flights were canceled. Many schools and nurseries remained closed.
The protests began mostly peacefully, but some clashes erupted between demonstrators and police near the end of the march in Paris, where at least 23 people were detained.
Unions said the turnout on Tuesday was bigger than during street protests on Jan. 19, after Mr. Macron’s government detailed its proposed changes to the country’s pension system. The turnout suggests the movement is gaining momentum and deepening unions’ standoff with Mr. Macron, who has said the new measures will be law by fall.
Union leaders outside the National Assembly in Paris last week.
Photo:
yoan valat/Shutterstock
About 1.27 million French people took to the streets on Tuesday, compared with 1.12 million on Jan. 19, according to the French Interior Ministry. Tuesday’s protest was one of the largest demonstrations in recent French history.
Revamping the country’s pension system—the centerpiece of which is raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030—was one of the main planks of Mr. Macron’s re-election campaign last year. He has argued that it is the only way to preserve France’s pension system without raising taxes or increasing the country’s debt. But the French leader will struggle to enact the rest of his pro-business agenda during his second term in office if he is forced to reverse course on pensions, analysts say.
So far, Mr. Macron’s government has…
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