Refinery workers, airport staff, train drivers, teachers, postal workers and guards who supply cash machines went on strike and students set off rowdy protests in a day of action against plans to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60.

At least a million protesters demonstrated in cities across France in the biggest and most persistent challenge to economic reforms anywhere in Europe, where governments are struggling to curb budget deficits and reduce debt mountains.

“To hell with the national debt. We’ll give them nothing and we don’t give a damn about their AAA!” read one protest sign, referring to the AAA credit rating the government says could be at risk unless it gets its pension shortfall under control.

The protests have blown into the biggest test yet for Sarkozy whose popularity ratings are dismal 18 months before a presidential election polls show the left would win as things stand today. Heavy media coverage of the protests has put Sarkozy under an uncomfortable spotlight as France prepares to take over the G20 presidency in mid-November.

Speaking in the seaside town of Deauville where he earlier met the leaders of Russia and Germany, Sarkozy appealed to demonstrators to show restraint as hooded protesters in the southern city of Lyon torched cars and looted shops after using cafe chairs to smash store and bank windows.

He said pension reform had been put off too long in France, where unions have a history of crushing such initiatives.

“A head of state has a duty toward the young and vis-a-vis the fundamental imbalances of his country,” Sarkozy said.

The CGT union put turnout at 3.5 million, on a par with its record-high estimate for protests earlier in the month. The government said 1.1 million people had turned out.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the government was concerned about protest fringes turning violent. The head of the CFDT union, Francois Chereque, also called for calm.

Police used tear gas to disperse protesters in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the mayor said some 200 youths set cars on fire and smashed public property. The suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie was hit by similar incidents, media reported.

This week will be critical for Sarkozy’s reform and for safeguarding the AAA rating which allows France to finance its large public debt at low market rates.

A majority of voters resent the plan to raise the minimum and full retirement ages by two years to 62 and 67 respectively, and unions are demanding negotiations on the pensions overhaul.

“I want to live my retirement,” read one protest poster.

Most analysts expect the law will pass within days and the protests will fizzle. But the unions, which defeated pension and labor reforms with strikes in 1995 and 2006 with the same passion that saw student protests in 1968 drive out President Charles de Gaulle, say they will press on regardless.

“Tougher guys than (Sarkozy) have backed down” said auto factory worker Patrick Planque, 42, at the main march in Paris.

Fuel shortages hit motorists, with nearly one in three of France’s 12,500 gas stations suffering reduced supplies, as refinery strikes went into day eight.

Fillon told parliament measures had been taken to get fuel distribution back to normal in four or five days. The government says it has dipped into a 30-day reserve stock held by industry but not yet tapped the 60-day strategic fuel reserve it maintains for wartime emergencies.

Roughly half of French train services were cut and 30-50 percent of flights were grounded, but the Paris metro and Eurostar services were running normally.

Street scuffles were the main worry for authorities.

Police arrested dozens of rioters in the city of Lyon after a day of skirmishes. Radio stations reported clashes outside a school in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where police charged hooded youths throwing stones at them and dispersed the group with tear gas.

Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie vowed to crack down on vandalism in the protests, telling Europe 1 radio: “The right to demonstrate does not mean the right to smash things up.”