Tens of thousands strike against austerity across France

Tens of thousands of people on Thursday joined French trade union's strike against the government's fiscal rigor and spending cut which, they think, would further weaken households purchasing power, the main growth engine of the eurozone second largest power.

In a nationwide protest, public workers and employees in private sectors took the streets in France's main cities with 120,000 in Paris, according to CGT trade union.

About 150,000 protesters took the streets in 80 demonstrations across the country. In the southern city of Marseille, organizers numbered about 45,000 people while police said they were 7,000. In Lyon, France's second main city, 7,000 people participated in the protest against 4,200 reported by the police.

"The government should pay attention to what is happening today. Either it listens or it doesn't, but it shouldn't start complaining afterwards," Jean-Claude Mailly of Force Ouvriere was quoted as saying by BFMTV news channel.

The nationwide marches denouncing austerity coincided with second day of air controllers strike against works condition and plans to extend retirement age. The industrial action forced airlines to cancel half of their flights.

State-owned Radio de France also on Thursday entered the fourth week of strike over public national and local radio network's saving plan.

Battling to be in line with European safe standard of budget gap, the government presented a series of new measures including a 21 billion euros (about 22.5 billion U.S. dollars) spending cut this year in order to boost growth and put its finances in order.

It aims to save 50 billion euros by 2017 by clinching the belt of local authorities and reduce public spending of social security. Endit