Union activists stormed the Paris headquarters of LVMH, the French luxury goods giant, on Thursday amid a new wave of protests against pension reforms, Reuters reported.

Protesters entered the headquarters of LVMHPhoto: Lewis Joly/Associated Press/Profimedia Images

Garbage collection in the French capital and traffic on sections of the Rhine River, which runs through the east of the country, were disrupted during the 12th consecutive day of nationwide protests and union action.

“Looking for money for retirement? Take them from the pockets of billionaires,” Fabien Wildier, one of the protesters who stormed the headquarters of LVMH, the company run by Bernard Arnault, France’s and the world’s richest man, told Reuters.

However, after the action was over, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Unions called for a show of force in the streets on Thursday, a day before the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Council, is due to rule on a bill that would raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

Decisive moment for raising the retirement age in France

If French constitutional judges give the green light to the project, the government will be able to push the law through a special procedure used to bypass a vote in parliament, hoping that the law’s entry into force will finally end the protests.

Demonstrators briefly blocked the entrance to the Constitutional Council with trash banners, hanging a huge banner with the inscription “Constitutional Censorship”.

But the protests lost some of the momentum of the previous days, and the number of demonstrators who took to the streets was markedly smaller than in previous weeks, when more than a million French people protested.

But the unions remained just as firm.

“This is definitely not the last day of the strike,” said Sophie Binet, the new leader of the CGT union, known for its radical leftist views.

French unions show signs of fatigue, Macron’s government hangs on

President Emmanuel Macron promised to meet with union leaders to work on proposals following the Constitutional Council decision. Union activists said they would reject the initiative if the French leader did not express his willingness to cancel the increase in the retirement age.

“I would be lying if I told you that after 3 months of mobilization there is no fatigue. We are tired, but mobilization is like a marathon,” Fabien Wildier told Reuters reporters.

“I am not optimistic about the decision of the Constitutional Council,” Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader with a hard-left agenda on economic issues, told BFM TV.

“But what do you want me to do? Set cars on fire? We will simply tell people: vote for the National Assembly (not for Le Pen),” she added.

President Macron and his government say the law is crucial to preserving France’s pension system, which has the lowest retirement age in the European Union.

“The president of the republic is completely disconnected from the concerns of the workers,” accused Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT trade union, before a rally in Paris.