Police, protesters clash in France ahead of ruling on Macron's plan

Police in France have scuffled with protesters, on the 12th day of nationwide demonstrations against the government's pension plans. 

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country on Thursday against President Emmanuel Macron's contested plans, which will raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. 

The demonstrations came a day before a much-awaited verdict by the Constitutional Council on the legality of the bill. Police halted a protest in front of the council, France’s equivalent of the US supreme court.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez had warned in advance that protesters might “hit out, often against what they see as capitalist signs”.

The protesters engaged in intense scuffles with police as smoke bombs, projectiles and tear gas were fired, before a group set off red flares outside the court building.

Workers blocked the entrance to the Feyzin refinery near Lyon for two hours before police intervened. Others blockaded a rubbish incinerator outside Paris.

On the Rhine river, cargo traffic was disrupted after workers cut power at a waterway lock near the border with Germany and Switzerland,

Protesters heckle Macron during speech in Netherlands

A speech by French President Emmanuel Macron in the Netherlands was interrupted by protesters, who lambasted him for the current state of democracy in France following weeks of protest rallies against a controversial pension reform plan.

If the council gives its approval, possibly with some caveats, the government will hope this will eventually put an end to protests, which have coalesced widespread anger against Macron.

But protesters said they would keep up the fight if the council gave a green light. "We don't want to work until 64," 50-year-old teacher Kathy Brochard told Reuters at the Paris rally.

Protesters want the bill withdrawn - or subjected to a referendum. Polls show about two-third of the French population are against the increase in retirement age.  

This is certainly not the last day of the strike," Sophie Binet, the new leader of the hard-left CGT union, said at blockade of an incinerator outside Paris.

Macron and his government argue the new law is needed to ensure that France's generous pension system does not go bust. Unions say this can be done by other means.

Critics accuse the French president of being cut off from reality, running roughshod over public opinion and parliament while pursuing his private agenda.

"The president of the republic is completely disconnected from the preoccupations of workers," the head of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, told reporters ahead of the Paris rally.

Political observers say the widespread discontent over the government's reform could have longer-term repercussions, including a possible boost for the far right.

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