France is in a stand-off against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform

A rolling national strike, launched on March 7th and in its third day as The Economist went to press on March 9th, will “bring the economy to its knees”, declared one union leader. With nearly 1.3m protesters on the streets across France on day one, a third of classrooms shut, and sporadic illegal power cuts, the country’s trade unions are engaged in a stand-off with the government over pension reform that is approaching its finale. The deadline set for parliament to examine President Emmanuel Macron’s legislation is March 26th. The unions, which are renewing their strike every day, want him to back down and shelve the plan before that.