French unions staged a new round of protests on Feb. 11 against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform, aiming to get more people on the streets over the weekend rather than asking workers to strike for the fourth time in less than a month..

More than a million people protested during the first strike organized last month, disrupting schools, factories and transport across the country.. However, this week, according to French authorities, the number of participants dropped to 757,000 people.. Union leaders say the movement is fading because workers can't afford more strikes..

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Authorities expect hundreds of thousands to march across France. The government sent 10,000 police officers to maintain order.

Three rounds of protests have shaken support in the French National Assembly for Macron's pension plan, which would raise France's retirement age to 64 from 62.. Several lawmakers from Macron's Renaissance party and its centrist allies threaten to vote down pension bill. Meanwhile, the conservative Republican Party remains divided over the proposed measures, with some members demanding more exemptions to raise the retirement age.. Without their support, Macron, who no longer has a majority in the National Assembly, will have no votes to pass pension reform - one of the main points of his campaign platform when he was re-elected in April..

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Most French oppose Macron's pension plan, polls show. An Ifop poll this week found that 62% of the population support the protests..

France has one of the most expensive pension systems in Europe, costing the state about 15% of its annual gross domestic product.. It also has one of the lowest poverty rates among older people, with 4.4% of people over 65 living below the poverty threshold set by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a club of rich and developing economies.. This figure is 9% in Germany and 23% in the USA.

When Macron proposed an overhaul of France's pension system in 2019, unions launched the longest transport strike in French history, bringing much of the country to a standstill.. But more than 45 days later, transport workers have returned to work, unable to afford an extended absence of pay.. Macron, whose party controlled the National Assembly at the time, seemed to have won his war of attrition with the French unions.. But then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and Macron put a hold on his plans to overhaul pension laws..