France braced for yet more disruption today after being hit by another day of walkouts, protests and transport chaos, as trade unions stepped up the pressure on Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to withdraw a controversial pensions reform bill.
Railway and metro workers, teachers and air traffic controllers spearheaded yesterday's nationwide strikes - the third in as many weeks - causing serious disruptions to train, bus and underground services in Paris and other cities.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators - unions estimated turnout at over 1.5 million - took to the streets across the country in protest at the reform plan, which calls for employees, especially in the extensive public sector, to work more years in order to get a full pension.
Most of yesterday's rallies were peaceful but in Paris police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of masked protestors gathered near the National Assembly, where members of parliament began debating the contested pensions bill.
The debate was cut short when Socialist deputies walked out, protesting against a charge by Raffarin that they "prefer their party to their country."
Discussions were to resume today.
Some 350 demonstrators burst into the central Paris Opera House to take refuge from the police, halting a performance of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. Police said they detained 60 of them, evacuated the audience and cordoned off the prominent 19th century building.
Police said there were nearly 40,000 protestors in Paris but union organisers put the turnout figure at 200,000.
Despite the outcry over the pensions bill, the prime minister has refused to back down, insisting as he opened yesterday's parliament debate that reform was necessary to save the creaking pensions system from bankruptcy as baby boomers reached retirement.
In Paris, only a third of buses and two thirds of metro trains were operating, and traffic authorities reported 170 kilometres (105 miles) of tailbacks around the capital during the evening rush hour.
Protestors also blocked roads in and out of other French cities like Toulouse in the southwest.
The government, which enjoys a large majority in parliament, has said it wants the pensions bill enacted by the summer recess in mid-July but the left-wing opposition has promised it a rough ride, with the Communists tabling more than 6,000 amendments.
AFP