PARIS: French protesters launched a new move on Tuesday Jan 31 to pressure President Emmanuel Macron into dropping a pension reform plan, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets and disrupting transport and schools.
The United States-led protesters came out for mass demonstrations for the second time in less than two weeks, challenging Macron's plan to raise the age of retirement from 62 to 64, a flagship reform of his second mandate.
Half a million people were protesting alone in Paris on Tuesday afternoon, higher than the figure of 400,000 people it gave for the last day of rallies on Jan 19, the main CGT union said.
A police source said the authorities were bracing for up to 1.2 million people to take to the streets across the country, which would surpass the 1.1 million who came out on January 19.
Macron hasn't shown signs of stepping back, insisting on Monday that the reform was essential for Transport worker Arnaud Roure, 47, who was among those marching.
Ladies and gentlemen from the government, you are wearing people down, you are sucking up all the resources we had left, he said.