The Paris City Hall remained closed on Tuesday.

The socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo described this as an act of solidarity with the protest movement against the pension reform.

“This unjust and brutal reform is a step backwards.

We will never resign ourselves to the systematic destruction of our social achievements," the mayor tweeted.

According to Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, town halls in several hundred municipalities have joined the call for strikes.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Even in strike-friendly France, it is unusual for public administrations to join a walkout as one.

All day long, the French news channels showed pictures of the protest marches, which were particularly popular in medium-sized cities such as Saint-Nazaire, Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier.

"All of Gaul is resisting," headlined the leftist newspaper Liberation with an illustration from Asterix and Obelix.

The left-wing spokesman Jean-Luc Mélenchon was connected from Marseille and prophesied: “President Macron is about to lose”.

Mélenchon's party alliance NUPES has submitted more than 6,000 amendments to the National Assembly.

The aim is to block the project, said left-wing group leader Mathilde Panot.

She explicitly supported union actions by the “Robin Hoods of Energy” who turn electricity back on for insolvent customers or cut freeway speed traps.

On Tuesday, the energy sector was one of the strongholds of the strike.

In the refineries of the Total group, operations came to a standstill.

Local and long-distance transport as well as schools were particularly affected by the strikes.

Macron's party member speaks of "unfair reform"

The government is acting increasingly nervous.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has announced that raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 is “non-negotiable”.

In France, however, she awakened memories of a distant predecessor, Prime Minister Alain Juppé.

In 1995 he protested that he would not be impressed by the pressure from the streets – and after weeks of strikes withdrew his entire reform project.

The failure was followed by the dissolution of the National Assembly.

President Emmanuel Macron has now leaked during his visit to the Netherlands that he is considering dissolving the National Assembly.

He described the reform as "necessary" and referred to the pension regulations of the European neighbors.

In the National Assembly, the government's communication has frightened many MPs, including the ranks of the Renaissance presidential party.

Former Socialist Labor Minister Marisol Touraine, who has aligned himself with Macron, has criticized the draft reform as "deeply unfair", especially for women.

Parliament Minister Franck Riester confirmed in a press conference that working mothers are among the losers of the reform.

In France, mothers receive additional trimesters of pension insurance for each child (8 in the private sector, 4 in the public sector).

But due to the increase in the minimum age, many will not be able to use the trimester.

“Of course, raising the statutory retirement age penalizes them a bit.

We don't deny that."

said Riester on the parliamentary broadcaster LCP.

Riester, a former member of the right-wing Republicans (LR), has increased the uncertainty in his former party with his statement.

The presidential group needs the support of right-wing MPs to get the reform through parliament.

New LR chairman Eric Ciotti had pledged somewhat grandiosely that the government could count on Republican votes.

But now a number of Republicans are calling for the reform to be improved.

Republicans tabled a total of 633 amendments.

"The more we deal with the draft, the more disillusioned we are," said LR MP Thibault Bazin.

The government must be more willing to compromise.