A national strike in France against planned pension reforms has severely disrupted transport services, closed schools and cut fuel supplies. The strike will continue on Wednesday as unions stepped up their campaign to force the government to scrap the highly unpopular measures.

• VIDEO France strikes: Protests widen as crucial moment approaches for Emmanuel Macron’s government

It is a critical moment for both sides, as French President Emmanuel Macron’s government hopes to have its plan to raise the retirement age by two years to 64 by the end of March, Reuters and News.ro reported on Tuesday. Seeking to put pressure on parliamentarians, France’s most radical unions said this time there would be continuous strikes that could last for days, at least in some sectors.

About 1.28 million people took part in a sixth day of national protests against the government’s pension reform bill on Tuesday, with 81,000 of them in Paris, the interior ministry and police, the French capital, estimated. However, the CGT union says there were 3.5 million demonstrators in France, with 700,000 in Paris, BFM TV reported.

By comparison, during the second act of mobilization, on January 31, the Ministry of the Interior counted 1.27 million demonstrators in the country, of which 87,000 were in the capital, a participation that is a record since the beginning of the protest movement. However, at the time, the trade unions spoke of a historic mobilization, when two million people took to the streets across the country.

Unions called for new demonstrations across France on Saturday against a pension reform plan proposed by the government, it was announced on Tuesday, ending a sixth day of strikes and demonstrations. The eight main unions have also called for a national mobilization day next week on March 15. The trade union confederation also announced it would send a letter to President Emmanuel Macron asking him to urgently meet with the strikers and cancel the reform.

The strikes continue on Wednesday

The CGT union said workers had voted to continue the strike at all TotalEnergies sites.

“The real fight starts now,” said Marine Guillotin, a union representative at the Donges refinery in western France. “We were not heard or listened to. We are using the only means we have left: a hard blow… we will not give up,” he said.

Trains will continue to run on Wednesday, as will the Paris Metro, although to a lesser extent than on Tuesday, the SNCF and RATP transport companies that run them announced.

Truck drivers and garbage collectors joined the strike on Tuesday, which spanned several sectors.

Across the country, numerous protest rallies have drawn more people than before since mid-January, including in Marseille, one of France’s largest cities, according to authorities and local media.

Violence and clashes with law enforcement officers in Paris

The CGT union said 700,000 people marched in Paris, according to local media, more than at any time since the protests began. The police estimated their number at 81,000.

Clashes broke out on the sidelines of the rally in Paris, some protesters turned violent, and police said 22 people were arrested.

Opinion polls show that Macron’s proposal to make people work longer is very unpopular with the general public.

France’s main unions have so far acted with rare unity, but the coming days and weeks will be a test of their ability to maintain that united front.

The CFDT, currently France’s largest union and a generally pro-reform union, does not agree to a permanent strike and says there could be other forms of protest.

What are the chances of trade unionists winning their case?

While the government is interested in creating divisions among unions in the hope of weakening the movement, the CGT and FO, which are strong in the transport and energy sectors, can still cause significant destabilization even without the involvement of the CFDT.

The government insists its reform plan is essential to keep the pension system from going bankrupt. “I understand that not many people want to work for two more years, but it is necessary to ensure the viability of the system,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne told France 5 TV.

Although Macron’s camp does not have an absolute majority in parliament, it can count on the support of at least part of the conservative Les Republicains (LR) party. The Senate, which has a majority in the Republic of Belarus, is likely to pass Article 7 of the draft law on Tuesday evening, which raises the retirement age to 64.

Even so, the legislation has a bumpy path through parliament and Macron and his government may have to invoke special constitutional powers to bypass the lower house of parliament – union leaders have warned against doing so.

“Forcing (the bill) will trigger a crisis,” CGT leader Philippe Martinez said ahead of Tuesday’s protest march in Paris.