Feb 3, 2023
French labor unions have been holding several days of mass strikes and protests against raising the retirement age, in a test of the momentum driving defiance to Emmanuel Macron's signature economic reform... which is hardly surprising: France is one of the biggest "western" bastions of socialism. As Bloomberg reports, the country's rail operator, SNCF, said only one-third of high-speed TGVs were running and urged people to work from home. Subway and commuter trains serving the capital were severely disrupted, with limited service on most lines. Many schools were also closed. Protesters also blocked three oil refineries operated by TotalEnergies SE and strikes by Electricite de France SA's workforce took more than 3 gigawatts of nuclear-reactor capacity offline. Air France-KLM's French arm said it had scrapped 10% of short-haul flights. Macron, already very unpopular, has faced the biggest protests yet of his time as president on Jan. 19 when the country's