French protesters turn out against pension plan with lower than expected numbers

Protesters took to the streets in France on Saturday on a seventh day of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform
plan, but not in the huge numbers authorities had expected.
The protests – and rolling strikes that have affected refineries, public transport and garbage collections – aim to pressure the government to withdraw the pension plan, whose key measure is raising the retirement age by two years to 64.
According to figures from the interior ministry, 368,000 demonstrators marched through various cities. Authorities had expected up to 1 million people to take part in the marches.
As with the previous protests, Saturday’s events were free of any major scuffles with the police.
On Tuesday, 1.28 million people took to the streets, the highest turnout since the start of the protest movement, according to government figures.