French police fire tear gas at strikers challenging Macron reform

[TomSea]

French police fire tear gas at strikers challenging Macron reform
Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas at protesters in the center of Paris on Thursday and public transport ground to a near halt in one of the biggest strikes in France for decades, aimed at forcing President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a planned reform of pensions.

The strike pits Macron, a 41-year-old former investment banker who came to power in 2017 on a promise to open up France’s highly regulated economy, against powerful trade unions who say he is set on dismantling worker protections.

The outcome depends on who blinks first - the unions who risk losing public support if the disruption goes on for too long, or the government which fears voters could side with the unions and blame officials for the standoff.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-protests-pensions/french-police-fire-tear-gas-at-strikers-challenging-macron-reform-idUSKBN1Y903F