600,000 join protests against pension reform

Hundreds of thousands joined a final national protest Tuesday, local time, before Christmas against pension reform in France as Emmanuel Macron’s government pledged ‘‘total determination’’ to see the overhaul through.

In an ominous sign of radicalisation, electricity workers caused chaos by cutting power to almost 100,000 homes overnight in Bordeaux and Lyon as part of the protest, warning that bigger power cuts could follow. The hardline CGT union said workers ‘‘only targeted public buildings and big business’’.

For the first time since 2010, all of France’s unions marched together in the third day of national protests in a crippling two-week campaign that has punished commuters and business in this crucial festive period.

However, in a boost for the French president, they failed to reach the hoped-for million mark, with police putting the numbers at 615,000 nationwide – lower than the 800,000 estimated for the first march on December 5.

The Eiffel Tower was closed and police were on high alert to avert looting and burning of cars and buildings. Officers fired tear gas and stun grenades in clashes with ‘‘black bloc’’ anarchists in the Place de la Nation, but the marches were otherwise peaceful.

The government is adamant that it will push through a ‘‘universal’’ points-based pension system and end the current patchwork of 42 ‘‘special regimes’’ that offer early retirement to many in the public sector. As red flares raged in Paris, rail workers, teachers, civil servants, lawyers and hospital workers chanted songs including: ‘‘We’re here whether you like it or not Macron.’’

Pierre Lespagnol, 68, a retired rail worker with the hardline Sud union, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘‘We have nothing to say about this reform apart from it must be scrapped. It’s a change towards a neoliberal society that doesn’t interest us. France is one of the last countries with a pension system of solidarity. Macron is playing Thatcher and it won’t wash.’’

Hardline unions, notably the CGT, want the reform shelved and the current system – in which taxpayers pay €8 billion ($NZ13.5b) annually to prop up loss-making regimes that allow some to retire in their mid-50s – to be ‘‘improved’’.

The moderate CFDT union, France’s largest, backs the reform but wants the Macron government to drop a move to create a ‘‘pivot age’’ that would effectively raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2027. The government says the new system will be fairer and improve pensions for women and low earners in particular.

Addressing parliament, Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, said there would be no climbdown despite CGT threats to paralyse transport over the Christmas period. – Telegraph Group

GETTY IMAGES French firemen and members of the CGT union march through the streets of Paris chanting against President Emmanuel Macron as thousands take to the streets in support of the National Strike on a crucial day between the government and the unions over pension reforms in Paris.