Travel, schools and services were expected to be disrupted by nationwide strikes for a sixth time as the battle for public support intensified.
PARIS — Idle trains, closed ports, empty schools, canceled flights, uncollected trash, shuttered refineries.
That is what France was bracing for on Tuesday as labor unions vowed to bring the country “to a standstill” and send more than a million people into the streets to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62.
After two months of an uneasy confrontation and five previous demonstrations that have unfurled across the country, neither side has shown any sign of backing down.
Many wonder if Tuesday will be the beginning of a reinvigorated movement that could force the government’s hand, or instead become a final yell of frustration — lingering in the air before fading, as Mr. Macron pushes through his change.
“Will this be a turning point?” asked Chloé Morin, a political scientist and former adviser to two prime ministers.
“Will either group manage to convince public opinion or not?” she said, adding between the government, the unions and protesters “you have 67 million French people who are watching this match.”
Analysts say that Mr. Macron, facing the biggest social confrontation since his re-election last year, has backed himself into a corner by putting so much political stock into a change that few want or see as urgent. Now, failing to push the bill through could turn him into a lame duck president just a year into his second five-year term.
But despite experiencing rare unity and strength and managing to rally over 1 million people in past protests, the unions have little to show for their actions. Some now want continuous, disruptive strikes — especially in key sectors like energy and transportation, where some unions have already announced longer walkouts — which would ratchet up pressure on Mr. Macron but could turn public opinion against them.
Changing France’s complex and coveted retirement system, considered among one of the most generous in Europe, is considered particularly difficult. Michel Rocard, a former Socialist prime minister, famously said that it was “enough to topple several governments.”
The current one says the retirement age needs to be pushed up to stave off long-term deficits caused by longer life expectancies and a rise in the number of French pensioners. In the French system, today’s workers pay the pensions of current retirees.
Mr. Macron was fuzzy on details but made raising the retirement age a cornerstone of his re-election campaign, and considers his win a public endorsement of the plan. But opponents argue that many in France voted for Mr. Macron not in support of his platform, but to block his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen.
Mr. Macron acknowledged as much in his victory speech and vowed to take it into account for his second term — part of a broad promise to govern with more collaboration and fewer dictates from above.