Union activists have barged into the Paris headquarters of luxury goods company LVMH and fill it with red smoke.

 
Violence erupted in Paris and other cities, as riot police charged protesters and fired tear gas.

Trade unions urged a show of force, a day before the Constitutional Council rules on the legality of a bill that will raise the state pension age by two years to 64.

It was the 12th day of nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform proposal since mid-January.

Striking workers disrupted garbage collection in Paris and blocked river traffic on the Rhine in eastern France.

If the Council approves the bill, possibly with some caveats, the government will be entitled to promulgate it.

It’ll hope that closes a long chapter of sometimes violent protests.

But demonstrators said they would keep up the fight even if the Council gave a green light.

They want a referendum on the bill or for it to go back to parliament.

The industrial action has lost some steam though.

Thinner crowds have rallied in the past few weeks compared with the more-than 1 million-strong numbers seen early on.