Paris (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across France on Thursday to protest against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms, in a final day of demonstrations before a crucial court decision on the legislation.
There were new violent clashes between police and protesters in western France, while demonstrators also stormed the headquarters of French luxury goods firm LVMH in Paris.
All eyes on Friday will turn to France's Constitutional Council, the country's highest administrative authority, which will announce its verdict on the pensions legislation in the final hurdle before Macron can sign it into law.
The protest march in Paris was closing in on the Constitutional Council's headquarters, opposite the Louvre museum in central Paris, which was protected by a phalanx of anti-riot police in full body armour brandishing shields.
Police expected around 400,000 to 600,000 people to take part nationwide on Thursday, fewer than half the nearly 1.3 million who demonstrated in March at the height of the protests against the reforms, which include raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
"Now's not the time to give up, because that's what Macron is expecting," said Johan Chivert, a student in the Creuse region in central France.
"We have to keep going and show the people are against this reform."
Losing momentum?
If the court issues a green light -- as ministers are privately confident it will -- Macron hopes to sign the changes into law immediately, clearing the way for them to enter into force before the end of 2023.
Having repeatedly snubbed calls for talks with union leaders in recent weeks, the 45-year-old leader said he would invite labour representatives for discussions once the court decision was published.
"The decision from the constitutional court on Friday will bring an end to the democratic and constitutional procedures," Macron told reporters on a trip to the Netherlands on Wednesday, adding that public debate "will continue, for sure".
Paris police have banned any demonstration around the Constitutional Council until Saturday morning.
Strike momentum has been clearly waning on what is the 12th day of action since the start of the movement in January, with employees reluctant to sacrifice salaries for what seems like a losing battle.
Most trains were running on Thursday at state rail operator SNCF and the Paris public transport provider RATP, past bastions of strike participation.
But the movement is "far from over", said the head of the CFDT union Laurent Berger as the demonstration got under way in Paris, vowing major protests on the May 1 labour day.
The hard-left CGT union has called for new strikes by refinery workers and rubbish collectors, whose walkout left the streets of Paris heaving with rubbish for three weeks in March.
A Mercedes car and bins were set on fire in the western city of Rennes, while protesters and police clashed in Nantes, a flashpoint of tension in recent weeks with security forces using tear gas, AFP reporters said.
'Make French model sustainable'
Protesters briefly occupied the headquarters of LVMH on the glitzy Avenue Montaigne in central Paris and set off smoke flares.
"Mobilisation must continue because this bill cannot see the light of day," Manuel Bompard, a leading lawmaker for hard-left opposition party France Unbowed, told broadcaster France 2 on Thursday.
The Constitutional Council -- whose members are known as "the wise ones" -- has the power to block parts of the legislation or even reject it wholesale.
Surveys show that about two in three French people are against the pension changes, but Macron argues that they are essential to stop the system falling into heavy deficit in coming decades.
Critics accuse the president of riding roughshod over public opinion and parliament, where the minority government invoked controversial executive powers to ram the legislation through without a vote at the end of March.
"I'm proud of the French social model and I defend it but if we want to make it sustainable, we have to produce more," Macron said in the Netherlands.
