PARIS—More than a million people marched through French cities on Thursday to denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age, with a wave of nationwide strikes halting trains, blocking refineries, and curbing power generation.
Buoyed by their success, the country’s leading trade unions called for a second day of strikes on Jan. 31 in a bid to force Macron and his government to back down on a pension reform plan that would see most people work an extra two years to age 64.
“Now, the government finds itself with its back to the wall,” the unions said in a joint statement. “Everyone knows that raising the retirement age only benefits employers and the wealthy.”…