French cops launched tear gas cannisters and charged protesters as tens of thousands of workers took to Paris streets to rally against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64.
Clashes broke out near the Nation square in eastern Paris during a demonstration, organised by trade unions, to demand that President Emmanuel Macron abandon his reforms.
Witnesses said police charged a group of protesters who ignored an ultimatum to disperse and were throwing Molotov cocktails.
Away from the riot scenes, union activists cut electricity to nearly 100,000 homes or offices. Eiffel Tower staff walked off the job. Even Paris opera workers joined in the nationwide protests across the country, singing an aria of anger.
Despite 13 days of crippling train and subway strikes, Macron and his government stayed firm. The prime minister declared his 'total' determination to reshape a pension system that unions celebrate as a model for the rest of the world but that he calls unfair and destined to collapse into debt.
Lighting red flares and marching beneath a blanket of multi-colored union flags, thousands of workers snaked through French cities from Brittany on the Atlantic to the Pyrenees in the south.
Hospital workers in scrubs, Air France staff in uniforms, lawyers wearing long black robes - people from across the French workforce joined in the strikes and protests in higher numbers than the last cross-sector walkout last week. The retirement reform that has brought them together is just one of their many gripes against Macron, a business-friendly centrist they fear is dismantling France's costly but oft-envied welfare state.
Workers from the hard-left CGT union on Tuesday carried out what they called 'targeted' blackouts on electricity networks around Lyon and Bordeaux to call attention to their grievances, and their power.
Several European countries have raised the retirement age or cut pensions in recent years to keep up with lengthening life expectancy and slowing economic growth. Macron argues that France needs to do the same.
Tourists canceled plans and Paris commuters took hours to get to work Tuesday, as train drivers kept up their strike against changes to a system that allows them and other workers under special pension regimes to retire as early as their 50s.
'Monument Closed' read a sign on the glass wall circling the base of the Eiffel Tower, which was shut for the second time since the strike, one of the most protracted France has seen in years, started Dec. 5.
'It's very frustrating for us, unfortunately,' South African tourist Victor Hellberg said, gazing up at the 19th century landmark. 'We had decided to be here for one day and that's life I suppose.'
Victor Garcia, visiting from Barcelona, said he's used to protests at home but admitted not climbing the Eiffel Tower's steps 'is kind of a bummer.'
Police in Paris barricaded the presidential Elysee Palace, bracing for violence by yellow vest activists or other radical demonstrators.
Across the French capital, union leaders demanded that Macron drop the retirement reform.
'They should open their eyes,' said Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT union, said at the head of the Paris march.
With riot police watching closely, protesters carrying humorous signs and colorful costumes marched past the historic Bastille plaza. On the steps of the opera house overlooking the monument, workers sang famous arias and played instruments to defend their special retirement plan.
Bernard Buffet, a costume fitter, is 63 and retiring in April after 35 years at the Bastille Opera, but is protesting in solidarity with younger colleagues.
'The government is stuck on the reform. They are very arrogant,' he said.
The government has insisted it will push through a single points-based pension system and end the current patchwork of 42 separate schemes that offer early retirement to many in the public sector.
It says the new system will be fairer and more transparent, improving pensions for women and low earners in particular.
'My determination, and that of the government and the majority, is total,' Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told parliament on the eve of new talks with unions.
Philippe confirmed new negotiations with unions starting Wednesday, but showed no sign of backing down.
'Democratic opposition, union opposition is perfectly legitimate,' he told lawmakers. 'But we clearly laid out our plans. And on this plan, the creation of a universal retirement system, my determination ... is total.'
He also paid tribute to 'the French who go to work despite difficulties.'
Critics say the changes could force millions of people to work beyond the official retirement age of 62 - one of the lowest in Europe - by setting a 'pivot age' of 64 that would ensure a full pension.
'What scares us about the points system is that we don't know how much a point is worth,' said Kelly Grosset-Curtet, a 21-year-old student marching in Lyon.
'It seems that it's a way of separating the good pensioners from the bad ones.'
In addition to transportation troubles, parents faced shuttered schools and students had key exams canceled Tuesday as teachers joined in the strike.
Several universities have cancelled or postponed year-end exams, and both the Garnier and Bastille Operas in Paris have cancelled dozens of performances, costing millions of euros in lost ticket sales.
'This is absurd,' Sylvie Baheux, a 55-year-old gym teacher, said at Paris' Saint-Lazare station on Tuesday, adding that her usual one-hour commute to work had doubled during the strike.
'It's complicated, but this pension reform needed to be done,' she said.
Hospitals requisitioned workers to ensure key services Tuesday, as nurses, doctors and pharmacists went on strike to save a once-vaunted public hospital system that's struggling after years of cost cuts.
Tuesday's protests upped the pressure on Macron, whose key architect of his pension overhaul had to resign Monday over alleged conflicts of interest.
Unions fear people will have to work longer for lower pensions, and polls suggest at least of half of French people still support the strike. Unions at the SNCF rail authority want to keep the strike going through the Christmas holidays.
While patience was running short among Paris Metro riders squeezing into scarce trains , the strike troubles weren't enough to scare away some visitors to the City of Light.
Spanish tourist Lydia Marcos, finding the Eiffel Tower unexpectedly closed, shrugged it off and said, 'It's like an excuse to come here another year.'
'Nobody wants to mess up Christmas, not the strikers nor workers nor the French who want to be with their families,' Laurent Escure of the UNSA union told France 2 television.
'But this is entirely the government's fault.'
More than 800,000 people turned out across France for the first mass demo on December 5, but official figures suggest only 340,000 came out for the second rally five days later.
Train operator SNCF has warned that it may now be too late to get services back to normal by December 25.
Retailers, hotel owners and restaurants, particularly in Paris, say the strike has severely dented revenues during the crucial holiday season, with some reporting sales drops of up to 60 per cent.
Commuters in Paris and other big cities have borne the brunt of the transport stoppages so far but holiday travel plans are now at risk, with just one in four high-speed TGV trains running on Tuesday.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
