French riot police used tear gas and water cannon to clear stone-hurling youths as unions kicked off a fresh wave of street protests and strikes on Tuesday over planned labour reforms, but President François Hollande refused to back down, reports Reuters.
Truckers blocked access roads to fuel and food supply depots and rail workers went on strike in a week that has been billed by French media as make-or-break for a months-long protest movement that has recently shown signs of losing momentum.
Hollande, whose popularity is at rock bottom a year before a presidential election, said he would not scrap changes to one of Europe's most protective labour laws -- a flagship reform that would make hiring and firing easier.
"I will not give in," the 61-year-old Socialist leader told Europe 1 radio.
Armed police evacuated a FNAC consumer goods store in Nantes targeted by troublemakers.
Members of the hardline CGT union used cement and concrete blocks to shutter up the window of a Socialist Party office in the southern city of Toulouse, and riot police engaged in cat-and-mouse chases with masked and hooded groups in Lyon, Marseille and the capital. Police reported 75 arrests.
The truckers slowed or blocked traffic on major roads and at strategic junctions, notably in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, where they turned away deliveries to a supermarket and fuel supply hubs.
CGT chief Philippe Martinez led the Paris march, which like others across the country was joined by backers of the Nuit Debout protest movement (which loosely translates as "Night Uprising") that sprang up in response to the labour reforms.