FRENCH workers staged another massive walkout today over President Emmanuel Macron’s scheme to raise the minimum retirement age.

During the last walkout on January 19, unions said that more than two million workers joined demonstrations against plans to raise the retirement age in France from 62 to 64.

Thousands of workers again protested by joining huge demonstrations in Paris, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and many other places.

The left-wing CGT union centre said that around 400,000 protesters took to the streets of Paris.

Demonstrators in the French capital, many of whom were young, marched peacefully from the Opera area carrying placards reading “save your pension” and “tax billionaires, not grandmas.”

France’s current pension system “is a democratic achievement in the sense that it is a French speciality that other countries envy,” said one protester, media worker Anissa Saudemont.

The strikes have once again brought trains to a standstill and only one in five flights at Orly airport were cancelled ahead of the walkout.

Scores of schools have been closed and students are also occupying several university buildings across the country.

TotalEnergies said that deliveries of refined oil products from its sites had been suspended due to the strike. 

Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said: “The pension system is loss-making and if we care about the system, we must save it.”

CGT leader Philippe Martinez said that there was once again “a high level of mobilisation” across France.

But he said what was needed was “harder, more numerous, more massive” strikes.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has signalled that she is likely to strike a deal with the Republicans in the Assembly who want those who started work at age 20 to be allowed to claim their pensions at 63.

Their support would be enough to see the changes through the chamber.

More strikes and demonstrations are planned on Saturday.