A broad alliance of unions has called for an eighth day of street protests across France since mid-January to contest Macron's plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

The result of the parliamentary elections was a stunning blow for the president and his reform agenda, leaving his camp facing the prospect of a political deadlock.

Macron defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff vote by winning a second five-year term and preventing what would otherwise have been a major political upset.

Macron, a pro-European centrist who became president in 2017 after easily beating Le Pen when voters rallied behind him to keep the far-right out of power, is facing a much tougher challenge this time.

Macron's coarse language barely three months before a presidential election was widely seen as politically calculated, tapping into an intensifying public frustration against the unvaccinated.

Macron has been criticised in the past for off-the-cuff remarks which many French people said came across as arrogant, cutting or scornful.

Hardline groups are still violently protesting Macron's 'Islamophobic' defence of French secular and free speech values.

German Chancellor Merkel has now changed her tune from 2015 and is calling for strict monitoring of Schengen Zone external borders.

The murder of a French teacher is highlighting cultural rifts between many Muslim countries and the West.

The French public want to boost secularism and public security in the face of what President Macron calls 'Islamist separatism'.

More schools are being closed in infection clusters.