THOUSANDS of young people demonstrated across France today, just hours after the right-wing-dominated Senate voted to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

Some of the protesters blocked access to universities and secondary schools, while unions blocked industrial zones, refineries and ports and lorry drivers, refuse workers and gas workers took strike action.

A huge youth-led protest took place in Paris as part of the continuing nationwide strikes and demonstrations.

Raising the retirement age is a centrepiece of President Emmanuel Macron’s legislative programme. He claims that the measure is needed to keep the state pension system financially stable as the population ages.

However, opponents argue that wealthy taxpayers or companies should make higher contributions instead — and point to France’s plans to increase military spending by over a third in the next few years.

Teenage protester Djana Farhaig said: “I don’t want to work all my life and be exhausted at the end.”

At one protest, a teenage boy held a placard reading: “I don’t want my parents to die at work.”

Economist Thomas Coutrot, who specialises in health and conditions of work, said that there was a widespread sentiment that “work has become unbearable”.

“Young people perceive that the conditions of work are deteriorating and that workers don’t understand anymore why they work,” he said.

French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel said divisions on the right meant it was important to maximise pressure on every politician.

“Our determination is total,” he declared, and, addressing the protests: “See you this Saturday in every town in France!”

While France’s young people often participate in protest movements, sociologist Dr Paolo Stuppia, of the Sorbonne and California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt, said that an especially large number were taking part in the campaign against the retirement Bill.

They include people who also march for climate action, LGBTQ rights or against racial and gender-based discrimination, Dr Stuppia said.

“For young people, their future seems to be completely closed and this reform is part of a model they want to question,” he explained.

During the Senate debate, which was followed by members backing the unpopular legislation by 201 votes to 115, Socialist Monique Lubin told Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt that his “name will forever be attached to a reform that will set the clock back almost 40 years”.

Despite the Senate vote, French trade unions have vowed to continue their opposition until the legislation is withdrawn.