France threatened with largest blockade in 25 years

Unions opposing President Emmanuel Macron's programme are designing the biggest demonstrations in the last 25 years.

Unions have called for a massive protest, angry at the government's plan Macron to implement a sweeping pension reform, which, in their opinion, will turn fire on many workers.

The strike is expected to include a large number of education and health professionals, flight controllers, railway employees and firefighters.

The demonstrators fired tear gas on masked protesters, targeting those with various objects.

In Lyons and Marseilles, thousands of protesters bear slogans: “Macron has lost” and “Do not be affected by our pensions,” reports Reuters.

Media report that railway transport to France will be reduced to the maximum today, as about 80 percent of drivers are on strike. The Paris subway will also suffer with 11 of the 16 closed lines, with much fewer buses.

State Ironnet The SNCF has announced that approximately one in ten trains will operate on periphery and high-speed lines, while international services like Europol will be affected by strikes, which cancelled nearly half the Paris-London trains.

Also, due to the flight controller strike, several Air France flights will not be realised.

A strike by trade unions protesting the warned change of the pension system will now close the Aifel Tower and the Orsay Museum, while the Louver Museum says it will open later and some locals will be shut down.

Many schools have been closed, and even some police unions have warned they will seal down “symbolically” several police stations. It is recommended that shops located in Paris on “street” used by the protest march should be closed in case of street violence.

Many citizens use electric bikes and scooters, and authorities have banned protests in Champs-Elysees, around the Presidential Palace and around the Nordam Cathedral.

Police searched more than 3,000 citizens who went out to protest in Paris, and 18 people were arrested before the protests began.

Throughout France, thousands of citizens in red union vests march through towns from Marseille to the Mediterranean Coast to Leele in the north.

President Macron faces a major national strike during his mandate. This will be a major test for him, as general reform of the pension system has been one of the main promises in his election campaign.

The Macron government argues that the consolidation of the pension system and the exclusion of 42 subx0 special regimes” for sectors ranging from railway workers to lawyers and staff in the Paris Opera are essential for the sustainability of the financial system during the aging of the French population.

However, unions say the introduction of a <x0-level system” for all means that millions of public and private sector workers must work longer than the age of legal pension (62-year) or risk facing a serious decline in their pensions.

Unions report they will not give up strikes until their demands are met.

Surprisingly, the protests began before details of any reform in the pension system were discovered. But as President Macro's assessments are on the rise following the protest of the yellow “jelex1>, some polls say 89 percent of the French population believe their country is experiencing a “social crisis”.