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		</div><p>French workers angry over proposed changes to retirement rules are halting high-speed trains, disrupting electricity supplies and taking to the streets in a day of nationwide strikes and protests seen as a major test for Emmanuel Macron and his presidency.</p>
<p>People would have to work longer before receiving a pension under the new rules – with the nominal retirement age rising from 62 to 64.</p>
<p>In a country with an ageing population and growing life expectancy where everyone receives a state pension, Mr Macron’s government says the reform is the only way to keep the system solvent.</p>
<p>Unions argue the pension overhaul threatens hard-fought rights and propose a tax on the wealthy or more payroll contributions from employers to finance the pension system.</p>
<p>Most French people oppose the reform, polls suggest.</p>
<p>More than 200 rallies are expected around France on Thursday, including a large one in Paris involving all France’s unions.</p>
<p>Police unions opposed to the retirement reform are also taking part; those who are not protesting are bracing for potential violence if extremist groups join the demonstrations.</p>
<p>A majority of trains around France are cancelled, including some international connections, according to the SNCF national state-owned railway company.</p>
<p>About 20 per cent of flights out of Paris’s Orly Airport are cancelled and airlines are warning of delays.</p>
<p>Electricity workers pledged to reduce power supplies as a form of protest and some 70 per cent of nursery and primary school teachers said they would refuse to work on Thursday, according to French media reports.</p>
<p>Student unions are expected to join the protests by blocking access to some schools.</p>
<p>The French government is formally presenting the pension Bill on Monday and it heads to Parliament next month.</p>
<p>Its success will depend in part on the scale and duration of the strikes and protests.</p>
<p>Protracted strikes met Mr Macron’s last effort to raise the retirement age in 2019 and he eventually withdrew it after the Covid-19 pandemic hit.</p>
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