FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 was signed into law on Saturday.

This came the day after the country’s constitutional body approved the controversial change.

The changes will come into force in September, French government spokesman Olivier Veran said.

On Friday, the constitutional council rejected some parts of the government’s pension legislation but approved the higher minimum retirement age.

The nine-member council’s decision sparked spontaneous demonstrations in Paris and other cities after the court’s ruling.

CGT general secretary Sophie Binet said that “faced with contempt” from the government, unions intended to continue mobilising until the pension changes are withdrawn.

Another mass protest has been called for International Workers’ Day on May 1.

Four CGT-affiliated unions have also called for a “day of expression of railway anger” next Thursday.

French Communist Party general secretary Fabien Roussel said: “The law passed through the mill of the constitutional council is even worse than the law voted in parliament because the social measures have been removed.”

He said that the new pensions law was “enacted in the middle of the night, like thieves.”

The government argued that requiring people to work two years more before qualifying for a pension was needed to keep the pension system afloat as the population ages.

Opponents of the scheme proposed raising taxes on the wealthy or employers instead, and said the change threatened a hard-won social safety net.

Mr Macron, who made raising the retirement age a priority of his second term, plans to make a televised national address on Monday evening, his office said.

Since being first elected in 2017, Mr Macron’s business-friendly government has cut business taxes, made it easier for bosses to hire and fire workers and made it more difficult for the unemployed to claim benefits.