PARIS: Protests took place across France again on Friday,ahead of a decision by the Constitutional Council on President Emmanuel Macron's deeply divisive pension reform.
A demonstration started at noon in Paris and further protests were planned in other cities nationwide. Roads were blocked across the country.
The Constitutional Council is weighing Macron's proposal to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, and may fully or partly overturn the pension reform or else declare it constitutional. An announcement is due on Friday evening.
In the northern Ardennes region, trade union members blocked a highway into Belgium on Friday, the France 3 broadcaster reported.Cars were allowed through, while trucks were held up. Photos showed piles of burning car tyres on the road.
Roadblocks were also in place in the eastern city of Strasbourg,where a food company's cold storage warehouse was blocked, according to media reports.
In Rouen, north-west of Paris, a main access road into the city was blocked. Demonstrators occupied a motorway toll booth near Bordeaux and let cars through for free.
In the southern city of Toulouse, the CGT trade union caused a power cut in a district where a national research centre is located.
France has been roiled by protests for months over the contested pension reform, resulting in clashes, occasional violence, fires, the postponed collection of rubbish and even the cancellation of a visit by Britain's King Charles III.
The centre-right government wants to close a looming gap in the pension fund with the reform, which Macron wants to take effect by the end of the year. - dpa
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