Teachers, train drivers, pharmacists and hospital staff are among workers expected to strike in France on Thursday as part of a day of protests against looming budget cuts.

Unions are calling for more spending on public services, more tax on the wealthy and for the scrapping of an unpopular change to state pensions.

The social unrest comes as President Emmanuel Macron and his newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu are facing a political crisis and pressure to bring finances under control in the euro zone's second largest economy.

An Interior Ministry source said that as many as 800,000 people were expected to take part in the strikes and protests.

"The workers we represent are angry," the country's main unions said in a joint statement in which they rejected the previous gove

See Full Page