Paris, 28 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Hundreds of thousands of people on Tuesday protested again in France against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform, with police reporting riots in several cities and arrests in Paris.

The Ministry of the Interior spoke of about 740,000 participants nationwide. According to the CGT union, more than 2 million people participated.

The protests, which had been peaceful for weeks, were recently overshadowed by violence and clashes. On Tuesday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the deployment of 13,000 police officers, 5,500 of them in Paris. There, the police asked owners to close their shops along the demonstration route.

Despite the ongoing protests - Tuesday marked the 10th national day of demonstrations - there is no sign of the government giving in. Laurent Berger, the head of the largest trade union, the CFDT, suggested mediation on Tuesday.

He said the reform should be suspended for a few weeks to allow consultations with a small group of mediators. Government spokesman Olivier Véran, however, rejected the idea. He said it was possible to talk to each other without mediation.

Among those out on the street were pupils and students who attended trade union-organized demonstrations. Some high schools and universities were blockaded and among the work stoppages was a strike at the state railway SNCF.

The protests are directed against the gradual increase of the retirement age from 62 to 64. The government wants to close a looming gap in the pension fund with the reform. The dispute intensified because Macron pushed the text through the National Assembly without a vote.

A week ago, two motions of no confidence in the government failed. The reform has thus been passed. It will now be reviewed by the Constitutional Council. Macron wants the reform to come into force by the end of the year.

A state visit by Britain's King Charles III was cancelled because of the planned protests.

Meanwhile, there was a sigh of relief in Paris, where the CGT union announced an end to more than three weeks of strikes by waste collectors. More than 7,000 tonnes of rubbish are still piling up in the streets. The city is also using excavators to rid the streets of trash.