The French government will press ahead with President Emmanuel Macron's flagship labour reforms despite the first mass protests against his pro-business agenda, a leading minister said Wednesday. "We are implementing the things that the French people asked us to do, so we're not going to back down," she told BFM television. Around 200,000 people according to police -- 500,000 according to organisers -- answered a call from the Communist-backed CGT trade union to strike and protest nationwide on Tuesday against Macron's proposals. "The French people asked us to transform the country, they asked us to act," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the France 2 channel. The turnout for Tuesday's protests was comparable to the first day of rallies last year against labour reforms under Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande.

Source: The Local September 13, 2017 11:15 UTC