Widespread rejection of French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned pension overhaul was a key factor in his failure to win a parliamentary majority following his re-election last year. His decision to ram through his deeply unpopular reform without a vote turns an already festering dispute into a political and institutional crisis.

At the height of Thursday’s extraordinary political drama, shortly after the government announced it would force through its contentious pension reform amid a huge fracas in parliament, protesters began to converge on the sprawling Place de la Concorde in central Paris, a mere bridge away from the heavily guarded National Assembly.

For a moment, the old cradle of revolutions looked to be rolling back the years, convulsed by a spontaneous rush of outrage and anger – though protesters only numbered a few thousand.

There were the usual suspects, such as leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, thundering against a reform he said had “no legitimacy – neither in parliament, nor in the street”. Unionists were also out in strength, hailing a moral victory even as they denounced Macron’s “violation of democracy”.

“It’s a constitutional putsch,” George added. “It cannot pass, it must not pass!”

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