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Nationwide strikes and thousands on the streets of France as unions call for a rethink on austerity.

Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

Good morning. I'm Stuart Clarkson. Well, we'll start in France, where 800,000 people are expected to take part in a day of protests and strikes across the country against planned budget cuts. It follows wildly unpopular austerity measures worth $50 billion. President Macron and his new prime minister, Sebastian LeCun, are facing a crisis as they try to plug France's

four trillion-dollar black hole. Here's the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

Some schools are shut, by no means a universal picture. In general, it's a classic day of public sector

action here. I mean, we're used to it, and we've reported so often on these days over the years.

They've become less effective

in a way because people can work from home much more now. And also there's a lot more planning

involved with the rail company so that some trains are online. And on the street, there'll be a lot

of people. This afternoon in Paris, you know, I don't know what, 100, 200, 300,000, 300,000, I don't

know, it'll be big. And that will provide pictures. And that will also provide potentially cover for the people who want to wreak violence, who are now a regular occurrence on these occasions. So we can expect certainly a certain amount of trouble in the fringes, I would say. As Hugh Schofield, reporting of plans to abolish two public holidays have been scrapped. But unions in France want more spending on public services, more tax on the wealthy,

and a climb down on unpopular state pensions reform.

Charlotte de Montpellier is a French economist.

She says there's a lot that needs to be ironed out.

The political situation is very difficult and also the budget situation.

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