FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron will explain how he will seek to overcome tensions prompted by his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, as he speaks on national television for the first time since his government forced through the bill amid mass protests.
Macron is expected to back his government on Wednesday, two days after it survived two no-confidence votes at the lower chamber of parliament.
The 45-year-old French president repeatedly said that he was convinced the retirement system needed to be modified to keep it financed.
His decision last week to use a special constitutional power to push the bill through the legislative process without a vote infuriated many at parliament and across the country.
Since then, mostly small, scattered protests are being held every day in cities around France, some degenerating into violence, including in Paris.
Dock workers in Marseille on Wednesday blocked access to the city’s commercial port — France’s biggest —
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