Union-led protesters protest for the second time in less than two weeks, challenging the Prime Minister's plan to raise the age of retirement from 62 to 64.
abc.net.au/news/half-a-million-protest-in-paris-against-macron-pension-reform/101914430French protesters have launched a new push to pressure President Emmanuel Macron into dropping a pension reform plan, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets and strikes disrupting transport and schools.A police source said authorities were bracing for up to 1.
A police source said the authorities were bracing for up to 1.2 million people to take to the streets nationwide, which would exceed the 1.1 million who came out on January 19.But Mr Macron has shown no sign of stepping back, insisting on Monday that the reform was "essential"."Ladies and gentlemen from the government, you are wearing people down, you are sucking up all the resources we had left," he said.
"I don't want to work longer," said Sylvie Dieppois, 56, a kitchen helper near Rouen in western France. "My job is hard and even at 62 I will be exhausted."Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris. Around a quarter of all nursery and primary school teachers were on strike, according to the education ministry. In middle and high schools, more than half of teachers had stopped work, a teachers' union said.
Even a prison, in the south-western city of Nimes, was blocked by protesting staff, a union source said."The more French people find out about the reform, the less they support it," said Frederic Dabi, a prominent pollster at the Ifop institute.The government has said the changes are necessary to guarantee the future financing of the pension system, which is forecast to tip into deficit in the next few years.
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