PARIS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of nurses, teachers and other public sector workers joined forces to march against French President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms on Thursday, causing widespread travel disruption and bringing brief clashes with police in some cities.

While the vast majority of around 180 demonstrations nationwide were peaceful, scuffles erupted between police and hooded young protesters in Paris and the western city of Nantes, where security forces fired tear gas and water cannon.

It was the first time public sector workers, ranging from air-traffic controllers to civil servants, had joined with rail workers and pensioners to protest over the economic reforms Macron has sought to introduce since he took office last May.

“We’re here against the government, which is only helping the rich. What this government is doing is simply not OK,” said 65-year-old pensioner Françoise Rauch, a former rail worker who said she was also protesting against higher tax on pensions.

About 323,000 public sectors walked off the job, according to the interior ministry. Unions put the figure at 500,000.

In Paris, protesters denounced Macron’s proposals to trim some retirement benefits, overhaul unemployment insurance and shake up the highly indebted state-run rail company SNCF, with some chanting: “Together, let’s derail Macron!”

But only 13 percent of central government workers walked off the job, down marginally from an October strike, the government said, in a sign that unions may still be struggling to raise the street against the president.

Turnout was much stronger amid railway staff, who halted 60 percent of fast trains and 75 percent of inter-city services, while 30 percent of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled.

French riot police use water cannons during clashes with masked protesters attending a demonstration during a national day of strike against reforms in Paris, France, March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

“It’s a real mess,” said Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the Paris suburbs and had more than an hour’s wait for the next.

Public sector workers are angry with plans to cut the public sector headcount by 120,000 by 2022, including via voluntary redundancies, and oppose the introduction of merit-based pay.

Railway workers are worried by government plans to scrap job-for-life guarantees and automatic annual pay rises.

While rail staff have planned a three-month rolling strike starting on April 3, public sector workers have no plans yet for further action, but they will meet next week to consider it.

About 13.5 percent of teachers walked off the job, the government said, closing many primary schools. Electricity generation dropped by more than three gigawatts, the equivalent of three nuclear reactors’ output, as power workers joined the strike in sympathy.

PARADOX

Opinion polls show a paradox: a majority of voters back the strike but an even bigger majority back the reforms, including cutting the number of public sector workers and introducing merit-based pay.

That has led the government, which overhauled labour laws last year and is crafting other reforms, to say it will stand by its plans while keeping a close eye on protests.

Slideshow (20 Images)

On Tuesday, following a retirees’ march, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government would change tack for the poorest 100,000 out of 7 million pensioners concerned by the tax rise, in a sign that a government that prides itself on being firm on reforms can make exceptions.

“What we need to avoid is that all the grievances fuse together, as was the case in 1995,” a government official said, referring to France’s biggest strike in decades, which forced the government at the time to withdraw reforms.</s>France made the headlines yet again as a wave of an industrial strike was set to hit the European country from Thursday, March 22, onwards. The strikes called across sectors formed the part of the protest against President Emmanuel Macron's reform measures.

As many as seven trade unions appealed to workers in schools, hospitals, public service, air traffic control to carry out the strike while over 140 protests were planned across the country. The protest is expected to culminate at the Bastille monument in Paris where 25,000 demonstrators could gather to make their voices heard.

Besides, railway staff members would also join the Thursday demonstration before flagging off their strikes on two days out of every five between April 3 and June 28 till the time President Macron retreats with his reform plans. The railway strikes are expected to cause massive inconvenience to the commuters since a large number of trains would be cancelled.

Services in schools, hospitals and libraries would also be affected by the strikes while one-third of flights moving in and out of Paris's airports would remain cancelled because the air traffic controllers would remain off duty because of the strike.

A separate strike by the staff of Air France is also on the cards on Friday, March 23, seeking a six per cent salary rise. They have also planned another strike on March 30, AFP reported.

The strikers feel that the pay is not at par with the inflation while President Macron has been accused of ruining the public sector. The reforms would trigger the beginning of the end of the social model, they said.

Macron, who came to power last year with a decisive win over the right-wing Marine Le Pen, vowed to cut 1,20,000 public jobs by 2022 and his government's emphasis on pay on merit rather than experience was perceived by the unions as an attack on people's job security.

For breaking news & Instant updates throughout the day</s>Thousands of French civil servants, train drivers, air traffic controllers, and school and hospital staff have gone on strike on Thursday in a bid to protest against President Emmanuel Macron's reform drive. France's labor unions haven't once managed to force governments to adopt major policy shifts, and this time Macron has pledged to stand firm on his agenda.

About 150 protest marches are set to coincide. The nationwide general strike will hit the country's rail services, as about 60 percent of trains are set to be disrupted, as well as airports, with 30 percent of flights set to be cancelled in Paris. Many daycare centers, schools and hospitals are also likely to be affected since teachers and health workers are joining the protests.</s>The walk-outs and demonstrations are the latest test of strength for the 40-year-old centrist leader as he pushes ahead with a new phase of his agenda to overhaul the state railways and other public services.

France's once fearsome unions have regularly forced governments into policy U-turns in the past, but Macron and his ministers have vowed not to yield to the pressure despite the prospect of months of disruption.

"There will be a lot of people taking part," the leader of the hard-left CGT union, Philippe Martinez, promised on Wednesday. "If we do nothing, the government will not back down."

The March 22 date was chosen deliberately to echo the start of nationwide protests in 1968 that led to the country's biggest-ever strike and notorious street battles between police and students in Paris in May of that year.

Some commentators have reached into the past to draw parallels with more recent confrontations, particularly to 1995 when weeks of strikes paralysed the country and forced the government to abandon a pension reform.

For France's trade unions, it is a moment for them to show that they still wield power despite decades of declining membership numbers and new laws that have clipped their ability to shut down public services.

But the first round of their battle against Macron in September and October last year -- over changes to labour law -- ended in disappointment and saw the ex-investment banker prevail.

"We are going to continue reforming France in depth... with the certitude that our country needs this transformation to make up for the ground lost over previous decades," Macron told reporters during a trip to India last week.

Surveys show public opinion largely behind his bid to end some of the historic rights of railway workers, including pension benefits and guarantees of a job for life.

The state railway operator SNCF has warned that only 40 percent of high-speed TGV services will be running on Thursday, and just one in four regular trains across the country.

It is the first day of a three-month wave of strikes announced by unions that will see their members walk off the job for two out of every five days between April and June in a new and experimental form of protest.

The disruption is expected to cause a major headache for management even on non-strike days because trains and staff will not be where they are supposed to be.

France's civil aviation authority meanwhile said a third of flights into and out of the main Paris airports of Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais would be cancelled on Thursday because of industrial action by air traffic controllers.

An unknown number of schools are set to be affected, as are some hospitals, due to protests by teachers and health workers over planned changes to the education system and pay and conditions in medical facilities.

More than 140 protests have been planned across France in total, with the biggest of them set to take place at the Bastille monument in central Paris in the afternoon, where unions expect 25,000 demonstrators.

For Macron, France's youngest-ever president, the biggest risk appears to be different groups who are angry at his fast-paced and multi-fronted reform efforts coming together as a united force against him.

As well as public sector workers, he has angered retirees by raising taxes on their pensions and is forcing through an unpopular reduction in the speed limit on major roads.

His political opponents on the left, including the Socialist party which lost power last year and the hard-left France Unbowed party, have said they plan to take part.

Macron's approval rating is at 37 percent, according to a survey by the Ipsos polling group published on Wednesday, with 55 percent holding a negative view of his presidency, the highest level since the start of his term last year.

According to the investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine, Macron told advisors on Monday he was feeling "serene" and said the day of strikes was "not a cause for panic".</s>Police scuffled with protesters in Paris and fired teargas and water cannon in the western city of Nantes as strikes broke out across France yesterday in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron's economic reforms. While unions have struggled to rally crowds over the past months, this is the first protest against Macron bringing together public sector workers and railway staff, potentially spelling trouble for the government ahead of a rolling rail strike.

The date of March 22 also signifies the beginning of nationwide protests back in 1968 in which France was hit by the violent clashes with police in the streets of Paris, strikes and occupations of factories and public buildings.

Train conductors, teachers and air traffic controllers walked out to join more than 150 marches in cities and towns - the first time public sector workers have joined rail staff in protests since Macron came to office in May. Sixty percent of fast trains, 75 percent of inter-city trains and 30 percent of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled because of the strike. About 13 percent of teachers walked off the job, the education ministry said, closing many primary schools.

Public servants are angry over pay that hasn't kept up with inflation, while unions accuse Macron of wanting to take a sledge-hammer to the public sector. FSU union official Bernadette Groison said the reforms would herald "the end of the social model we know today, with public services that have been broken apart," as reported by AFP.

Macron has pledged to cut 120,000 public jobs and his government has raised the prospect of voluntary redundancies, prompting fears that the quality of services will take a hit. Plans to use more contractors and increasingly offer pay based on merit, rather than on experience, are seen by unions as attacks on traditional job security.

On the railways, plans to strip new recruits of a guaranteed job for life and other benefits have riled unionists who also fear that a restructuring of the SNCF could eventually see it privatized.

Macron's opponents oppose plans to use presidential decrees to pass the rail reforms, a bid to avoid lengthy parliamentary debate that critics say is undemocratic. He already used this strategy to pass labor reforms in September which loosened France's famously strict regulations on hiring and firing workers.

Macron has stayed sanguine through criticism over his reforms, insisting he was elected on a mandate to shake France up. "We're never happy when things change, yet we want things to change -- that's the paradox of France," he tweeted last week.

The president argues the public sector is too bloated and he is keen to trim spending and balance France's national budget by the end of his term, for what would be the first time since the 1970s. His government says the behemoth rail operator in particular is crying out for reform, saddled with 46.6 billion euros ($57.3 billion) of debt.

The SNCF runs trains at a 30 percent higher cost than European neighbors, the government says, arguing it is urgent that it becomes more efficient as EU countries prepare to open passenger rail to competition by 2020.</s>Paris — Police scuffled with protesters in Paris and fired teargas and water cannon in the western city of Nantes as strikes broke out across France on Thursday in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms.

Train conductors, teachers and air traffic controllers walked out to join more than 150 mostly peaceful marches in cities and towns — the first time public sector workers have joined rail staff in protests since Macron came to office in May.

"It’s a real mess," said Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the suburbs and had more than an hour’s wait for the next at Paris’ Gare du Nord station.

Up to 60% of fast trains, 75% of inter-city trains and 30% of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled because of the strike.

About 13% of teachers walked off the job, the education ministry said, closing many primary schools.

Electricity generation dropped by more than three gigawatts, the equivalent of three nuclear reactors, as those workers joined the strike, stoking government fears that the work stoppages could spread.

Public sector workers are angry with plans to cut the public sector headcount by 120,000 by 2022, including via voluntary redundancies, and about the introduction of merit-based pay.

Railway workers are worried by government plans to scrap job-for-life guarantees, automatic annual pay rises and generous early retirement.</s>Less than a year after French President Emmanuel Macron rode a wave of reformist optimism to the Elysee Palace, France's vast body of public-sector workers have turned against the country's youngest-ever president as his attempts to loosen France's restrictive labor laws have met with an outraged response from France's 5.4 million civil servants and workers on its state-run rail system.

Rail workers are using Thursday's demonstrations as the start of a prolonged strike that could last until June. Specifically, rail workers are protesting Macron's plan to cut some of the special employment rights for rail workers. From April 3 until June 28, rail unions have planned strikes for two days out of every five.

Macron famously prevailed in a runoff election last Spring, where he defeated National Front candidate Marine Le Pen after founding his own centrist, reform-oriented political movement called En Marche - or "Forward!" in English.

For his part, Macron is hoping the public will respect him for standing firm, and maybe even that the broader public will find the strikes exasperating.

The strike was expected to lead to the cancellation of 60% of fast trains, 75% of inter-city trains and about 30% of Paris airports' flights throughout the day.

A Les Echos poll showed just over half of French people backed Thursday’s strike - but an even larger majority are pushing for the reforms, including cutting the number of public sector workers, what the Express described as a "paradox."

"We are going to continue reforming France in depth ... with the certitude that our country needs this transformation to make up for the ground lost over previous decades," Macron told reporters during a trip to India last week.

As the Guardian explains, Thursday’s strike date was deliberately chosen to echo the start of nationwide protests in 1968 that led to the country’s biggest ever strikes and the notorious street battles between police and students of May 1968.

As Express reported, students clashed with riot police on Thursday, who fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Unions had previously struggled to unite crowds against Macron's reforms. But Thursday was the first protest that brought together both public sector workers, students and railway workers.

"It's a real mess this morning," Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the suburbs and had more than one hour's wait for the next, said at Paris' Gare du Nord station.

According to the Unions, one in four primary schools were on strike, while electricity generation dropped by over three gigawatts (GW), the equivalent of three nuclear reactors, as gas and electricity sector workers joined the strike. Some 150 protest marches were scheduled - including two rallies starting at around 1300 GMT in Paris.

Of course, some of the hostility is due to Macron going back on his campaign promises for better recognition and remuneration. He now seeks to slash budgets, rely more on contract workers, introduce merit-based pay and voluntary redundancies to cut the number of public workers by 120,000 over five years.

The government, which led an overhaul of labor laws last year and is working on a series of other sensitive reforms to programs like unemployment insurance, says it will stand by its plans - though they will keep a close eye on protests.

Though he has promised to maintain a steady hand, Macron will be watching the protests with what we imagine would be a sense of foreboding. Thursday's strike, and the government's reaction, will be a test, said Laurent Berger, the head of France's largest union, CFDT.

"Either they (the government) listen to us and it will have been just a warning shot, or they don't listen to us and then, let me tell you that public sector workers are very mobilised," he told RTL radio.</s>Emmanuel Macron took power as president of France on Sunday, vowing to restore the country's status in Europe and the world and heal divisions in society -- a nod to the bitter campaign the pro-EU centrist fought to defeat a far-right leader.

The 39-year-old former investment banker, unknown to the wider public three years ago and whose May 7 election marked a meteoric rise to power, was inaugurated leader of the world's fifth-largest economy in a solemn Elysee Palace ceremony.

In his first words after taking office, he pledged to restore France's standing on the world stage, strengthen national self-confidence and heal divisions that the bitterly-fought campaign had opened up.

Macron beat the National Front's Marine Le Pen in a May 7 run-off vote but the long campaign exposed deep divisions over France's role in Europe, immigration, and policies to revive a sluggish economy bedeviled by high unemployment.

"The division and fractures in our society must be overcome. I know that the French expect much from me. Nothing will make me stop defending the higher interests of France and from working to reconcile the French," Macron declared.

Although his victory over Le Pen was comfortable, almost half of France's 47 million voters chose candidates with views opposed to Macron's in the first round of the election.

Many say they feel dispossessed by globalization as manufacturing jobs move abroad and as immigration and a fast-changing world blur their sense of a French identity.

A convinced European integrationist unlike Le Pen and other leadership candidates, Macron went on: "The world and Europe need more than ever France, and a strong France, which speaks out loudly for freedom and solidarity."

Seeking closer ties with EU anchor nation Germany, Macron will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday. He will ram home the message that the European Union is resilient despite Britain's vote to leave and a spate of financial and migration crises that have boosted the far right.

Monday will also see Macron name his prime minister, whose job will be to pilot liberalizing reforms aimed at reducing joblessness and reviving economic growth.

Macron becomes the youngest post-war French leader and the first to be born after 1958, when President Charles de Gaulle put in place the country's Fifth Republic.

In a ceremony full of pomp, he was presented with what is effectively his chain of office -- a heavy golden necklace mounted on a red cushion that makes him Grand Master of the National Order of the Legion d'Honneur.

But Macron appeared determined to create an impression of personal modesty. Aides went out of their way to emphasize that the dark suit he wore cost about 450 euros or just under $500, and that the lavender outfit worn by his wife Brigitte had been loaned by fashion house Louis Vuitton.

He displayed youthful vigor during the televised proceedings, at one point racing up the Elysee stairs to meet a protocol requirement -- something not all previous French presidents might have managed.

He then chose to be driven by military jeep rather than civilian limousine to the Arc de Triomphe, where he stood in the rain, without coat or umbrella, to light the flame in tribute to France's war dead at the tomb of the unknown soldier -- a powerful reminder of France's role in the NATO defense alliance.

Further underscoring a commitment to France's military and peacekeeping role in the Middle East and Africa, he visited wounded service personnel in the military hospital. Aides have flagged a likely visit to French troops in Mali for next Friday.

Macron's rise, marked by a 21-gun salute at the Esplanade des Invalides, signaled at least a pause in the anti-globalization trend that elevated businessman Donald Trump into the U.S. presidency and led British voters to choose Brexit.

He later shook hands with well-wishers on the Champs Elysees, not far from where a policeman was shot dead by a gunman in April.

More than 230 people have died in France in attacks claimed by Islamic State over the past two years as the country has taken part in military action against the militant group that controls parts of Syria and Iraq.

Fifteen hundred police were mobilized to ensure security for Macron's inauguration while a large section of Paris was closed to traffic all morning.

Macron assumed power after an hour-long private meeting with outgoing President Francois Hollande, 62, in which official access to France's nuclear missile launch codes was handed over.

Macron, once Hollande's economy minister, then accompanied his former mentor down the red carpet to a waiting car.

He must now try to win a majority in June parliamentary elections for his start-up Republic on the Move (REM) party, which has blown apart traditional French political boundaries.

But Macron may struggle to get the country behind him.

In the first round of voting, more than 45 percent chose Le Pen or other candidates who promised different medicine, such as closing the wealth gap by rolling back globalization, shutting borders and rejecting the EU.

The business-friendly labor reforms in Macron's program follow on from policies that helped make Hollande the least popular French president in modern history and killed his chances of a second term by failing to ease unemployment.</s>Washington (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron will address the US Congress when he visits Washington next month on a high-profile trip held against the backdrop of rising transatlantic trade tensions.

Macron's two-day state visit will be the first by a foreign leader since Donald Trump assumed the presidency last year.

"France is not only our oldest ally, but one of our strongest," Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday.

"I look forward to welcoming President Macron to the United States Capitol to address a joint meeting of Congress on April 25."

Trump, who will host Macron at the White House on April 24, extended the invitation in January after he was hosted by the French leader for the Bastille Day national holiday -- when he was impressed by the traditional military parade on the Champs-Elysees.

Although Trump and Macron have met several times and professed good relations, they disagree on a range of fundamental issues, not least Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement on fighting climate change.

But the strategic relationship remains strong, and Macron recently expressed his vocal support for Trump's decision to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Ryan called Macron's address to Congress "a special opportunity to build on the historic relationship between our countries, and to reaffirm our commitment to defeating terror both domestically and around the world."

With the exception of Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande, every French president since Charles de Gaulle has addressed the US Congress.

The honor -- reserved for the leaders of America's close allies -- began on December 10, 1824, when France's Marquis de Lafayette spoke in the House chamber.

The last foreign leader to address members of the House of Representatives and the Senate was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2016.

In 1976, France's president Valery Giscard d'Estaing delivered his address in English.

A generation later in 2007, with US-French ties frayed by the Iraq war, it was Nicolas Sarkozy who came to Congress to reassure US lawmakers of the transatlantic friendship.

"In times of difficulty, in times of hardship, America and France have always stood side by side," Sarkozy said.

Macron's visit comes at a time of escalating tensions over trade.

The US leader's recent announcement of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports -- due to take effect this week -- has riled Europe, with Macron warning that his American counterpart risked provoking a mutually destructive "trade war."

In rolling out the measures, Trump had tweeted his displeasure with European nations, calling them "wonderful countries who treat the US very badly on trade."

The United States and the European Union agreed Wednesday to a fresh round talks to seek a "mutually acceptable" solution on the tariffs, following talks in Washington between Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and visiting EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem.

An earlier round of talks in Brussels had failed to provide clarity on how Europe might be spared.</s>The streets of Paris and Nantes witnessed mammoth protests by thousands of public sector workers along with students marched against the newly elected President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, including plans to reform public services and cut jobs. Agitated students went through a face-off with police, who fired tear gas shells in response. Teachers, train conductors, and airline controllers marched all over France on Thursday, March 22. As per media reports, 323,000 people took part in the nationwide protest, while the country’s second-largest trade union, the General Confederation of Labour estimating that the protesters were half a million in number.

Planes, schools, trains and other transport services across France were seriously disrupted on Thursday as unions set up dozens of street protests all over the country. The demonstration was in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to cut retirement benefits, overhaul unemployment insurance. Workers have planned to protest 2 days out of from April to June. In 2017, protests occurred in order to denounce legislation that would make employment contracts more flexible.

ALSO READ: Mass protests by public sector workers in France against French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies

According to official estimates on Thursday, the strikes impacted 40 % of inter-city trains and 30% of the flights. The participation of students in the massive protest marks France’s historic protest of 1968, which was led mainly by students on the same day, March 22, around 50 years ago. Started in French universities, later joined by many union members, the ruckus led to a standstill in the country and compelling the then ruling Charles de Gaulle regime to reform many sectors.

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People in 150 places across France take to the streets peacefully in a general strike to protest President Macron's economic reforms. Railways, airways, schools and power generation are affected.