France braced for new round of pension ire

Extra police drafted in after unions push Macron for retirement rethink

France was braced on Tuesday for the latest round of mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron's reform of the nation's pension system.

The reform, which has already been enshrined into law and that will take effect in the fall, will see most people retire at 64, rather than the current age of 62, and has been deeply unpopular with working people and trade unions, triggering several rounds of strikes and huge protests since January.

Opponents of the reform also complained about the way the law was passed, through the use of executive powers instead of via a debate and democratic vote in Parliament.

Tuesday's unrest was set to include strikes, marches, and blockades and be centered on the capital, Paris, where the Reuters news agency said an extra 4,000 police officers would be deployed. Elsewhere in France, an additional 7,000 officers were set to be called up to keep order, Reuters added.

France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a tweet the additional officers would "ensure the security of the demonstrations and guarantee the right to demonstrate".

Opponents of the pension reforms can no longer block them but are hoping now to pressure Macron into reversing them. As part of that campaign, the centrist Liot party will hold discussions on Thursday about a potential draft bill aimed at cancelling the changes.

Sophie Binet, leader of France's CGT union, told BFM TV that Tuesday's protests were about showing Macron the strength of feeling across the country.

"We are not asking to bring down the government, but to bring down the retirement reform," she said.

Against the backdrop of the prolonged unrest and its damage to France's economy, the decision on Friday by ratings agency S&P not to downgrade the country's sovereign debt will have come as a relief to the government.

S&P did, however, say it remained cautious about France's economic outlook because of its strained public finances.

While leaving the country's AA rating in place, S&P cautioned against any worsening of France's "elevated general government debt" and said the government should reduce public spending in the longer term.

Rival ratings agency Fitch was less generous in its latest assessment, cutting France's rating at the end of April to AA — because of worries about the fallout from the pension reform.

After S&P left the AA rating intact, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the weekend newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche he saw the decision as a "positive signal" that the government's public finance strategy was working.

Le Maire said several billion euros of savings in government spending would be made after a spending review is concluded later this month, with government ministries having each identified cutbacks worth 5 percent of their budget.