'Anger is growing': Rising tide of opposition to 'undemocratic' pension changes sweeps France

Renaud, 49, leaned out of the window of his Paris bin lorry, which was being held in its depot by a barricade of strikers. "Emmanuel R Macron doesn't seem to be listening to the anger out there," he said. "People don't think we're in a democracy any more."

- Angelique Chrisafis

A refuse truck driver for 22 years, Renaud had watched as his processing plant was blocked for the 15th day of a rubbish-collection strike that has seen the French capital submerged under 10,000 tonnes of waste.

He couldn't afford to strike and risk losing his daily income, but he understood the rage over Macron's decision to use executive powers to push through an unpopular rise in the French pension age to 64 without a vote in parliament.

Everyone was talking about how the political system was collapsing, he said. "People are struggling, prices are going up. I already have to work extra jobs to make ends meet - carpentry, building, anything I can find."

Protests intensified in France yesterday after the government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote. Several nights of sporadic demonstrations have seen more than 1,500 protests in cities including Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Paris - where bins were set alight - as well as ring-road blockades, docker protests, barricaded university buildings, track invasions at railway stations, refinery protests and electricity blackouts by strikers.

At Renaud's depot, a crowd of students gathered to support the strikers.