The figure suggests the demonstrations were some of the biggest in decades, slightly higher than the 1.27 million estimated during a previous round of protests against the reform on January 31. The hard-left CGT union put the number of protesters at 3.5 million. Across the country, many protest rallies attracted bigger crowds than previous ones organised since mid-January, including in Marseille, one of France’s biggest cities, authorities and local media said. There were some clashes on the margins of the Paris rally, and police said 22 people had been arrested. France’s nationwide strike, which disrupted train services, shut schools and halted fuel deliveries on Tuesday, spilled into Wednesday as unions stepped up their campaign to force a U-turn on a deeply unpopular policy. This is a critical time for both sides since Macron’s government is hoping his plan to raise the pension age by two years will be adopted by parliament by the end of the month.