Paris, Sep 21 : Unions staged new protests Thursday against an overhaul of France’s labour laws, hoping to build pressure on President Emmanuel Macron days before his flagship reforms are expected to enter into force.
The marches and strikes come a week after hundreds of thousands of people — 200,000 according to police, half a million according to organisers — demonstrated against the measures in the first major challenge to Macron since he was elected in May.

More rallies are expected Saturday, staged by hard-left political party France Unbowed, which will provide another measure of the resistance to 39-year-old Macron’s pro-business agenda.

The Communist-backed CGT union has organised Thursday’s protests and its secretary general, former car worker Philippe Martinez, called the first round last Tuesday “a good start”.

“What’s important today and in the days and weeks ahead is that the movement gets bigger,” Martinez added. (Courtesy: Press Reports)