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A sudden international scramble to embed a credible ceasefire in Libya, due to be launched by world leaders in Berlin on Sunday, is already facing disruption after key Libyan oil ports were blockaded by supporters of Gen Khalifa Haftar – one of the main protagonists in the war.

The move to blockade oil exports is a new show of strength as world leaders try to force Haftar, the leader of the Libyan National Army who runs the east of the country, and Fayez al-Sarraj, the leader of the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, into a ceasefire agreement that can end a 10-month battle over control of the capital.

A blockade could result in the shutdown of Libyan oil production within five days, the Libyan National Oil Corporation warned.

Haftar has been attacking Tripoli since April, but Europe has so far done little to prevent the assault, apart from calling for a ceasefire.

Turkey and Russia have recently taken advantage of European neglect, caused by divisions, by sending in forces and turning the oil-rich country, a gateway for African migrants into Europe, into a playground for international intervention, akin to Syria.

Russia has dispatched mercenaries in support of Haftar, while the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has come to the defence of Tripoli’s government, sending a mix of Turkish troops and Syrian fighters.

EU ministers admit that the divisions in Europe principally between Italy and France created a vacuum that allowed Russia and Turkey to intervene.

Italy is now proposing a UN-mandated force, including Italian soldiers to police a ceasefire, if one is agreed in Berlin. Roughly 250 Italian forces are already in Libya securing a hospital in Misrata.

The Berlin conference, focused on ending the arming and financing of rival forces, has been planned for months, but was given a new urgency by the rival Turkish and Russian interventions.

Erdoğan and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, tried to broker a ceasefire between the two sides in Moscow last week, but Haftar turned down the plan. Haftar has also been backed militarily by the United Arab Emirates, in defiance of a UN arms embargo, and UAE support for the ceasefire is essential to constrain Haftar.

Turkey has also been sending air defence missiles to Sarraj to weaken the impact of Haftar’s UAE-backed drones and fighter jets.

Before the conference the UN special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salamé, condemned the seizure of the ports, a sporadic tactic in Libya’s on-off civil war since 2011.

The UN Libya mission expressed “its deep concern about the current efforts to stop or compromise oil production in the country”. It added: “This move would have devastating consequences first of all for the Libyan people, who depend on the free flow of oil and would have terrible effects for the already deteriorated economic and financial situation in the country.”

The UN stressed “the importance of preserving the integrity and neutrality of the National Oil Corporation”. The oil corporation has been one of the institutions that has not split between east and west since the civil war started, acting as a glue preventing the country from dividing.

There were also reports that Sarraj was threatening personally to boycott the conference, sending only a delegation in protest over the fact that Qatar and Tunisia, two supporters of his government, were being excluded from the Berlin guest list.

In a sign of the importance of Libya, Putin, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are to attend. Erdoğan is also due to attend.

A leaked draft of the proposed Berlin agreement sets out steps for both sides to disarm their militias, renewed requirements for international actors to stop supplying arms, and for all sides to recommit to a renewed political process.

“All foreign interference can provide some aspirin effect in the short term, but Libya needs all foreign interference to stop. That’s one of the objectives of this conference,” Salamé said in an interview before the Berlin summit.

Sarraj’s troops in Tripoli have been under attack since April from Haftar’s forces, with clashes killing more than 280 civilians and 2,000 fighters, and displacing tens of thousands.

Erdoğan urged Europe to stand united behind Sarraj’s government, as Tripoli’s fall could leave “fertile ground” for jihadist groups such as Isis or al-Qaida “to get back on their feet”.

Greece is poised to get its first female president after the country’s centre-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis took the unprecedented step of proposing a progressive female judge to assume the role of head of state.

In a move loaded with symbolism for a nation more used to the divisiveness of bipartisan politics, the prime minister nominated 62-year-old Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

“The time has come for Greece to open up to the future,” he said in an unexpected televised address, emphasising that the choice embodied unity and progress.

The news of a cosmopolitan jurist being catapulted to the head of the republic caught many off guard – not least in Mitsotakis’ own New Democracy party. Her views have often run counter to the establishment.

But less than 24 hours later, opposition parties, in a display of rare accord, also backed the proposal on Thursday. Former premier Alexis Tsipras, describing his decision as an “act of responsibility”, announced Syriza MPs will vote in favour in a parliamentary ballot on 22 January . The centre-left Kinal likewise expressed support, giving Sakellaropoulou’s election the blessing of at least 266 deputies in the 300-seat parliament. The five–round vote requires an overwhelming majority of 200 to pass initially.

The historic step would, analysts said, go some way to redressing Mitsotakis’ poor record of appointing women. Just five were given cabinet positions when his New Democracy party ousted Syriza in July, a decision for which the leader was broadly chastised both at home and abroad.

“It’s inspired because he’s not only been heavily criticised for not having enough women in his cabinet but she is also very progressive,” said the prominent political commentator Pavlos Tzimas. “She belongs to a minority of judges in Greece who have always taken a courageous stance on civil rights whether that be voting against sexual discrimination, or in favour of refugee children or civil unions for same sex couples. There are many in his own party who will not be happy with this choice.”

The French-educated judge broke the mould when she was elevated as the first woman to the helm of the country’s highest court in October 2018.

Sakellaropoulou’s sensitivity to civil liberties, ecological issues and minority rights, prompted the then leftwing administration to propel her to the post. At a time when the climate emergency is becoming ever more apparent, aides close to Mitsotakis said her track record in protecting the environment, while also endorsing policies of growth, would be crucial as the country emerges from a period of political and economic crisis following its near brush with bankruptcy.

Reacting to her nomination for the country’s highest office, Sakellaropoulou, who is divorced and has one child, described it as “honouring both justice and the modern Greek woman. I accept the proposal and, if elected, will devote all my efforts to serving this high duty, as set out by the constitution”.

Previously Tsipras had said he would support the re-appointment of incumbent president Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a professor of constitutional law, whose current five-year term expires in March.

A veteran conservative, Pavlopoulos’ re-election would have been endorsed by many in New Democracy, a party of deeply-held traditional views.

But signalling his determination to overhaul his own political group, Mitsotakis, 51, insisted that as an apolitical figure who was above party politics, Sakellaropoulou could reflect Greece’s “rebirth” as it gradually recovers from the debilitating drama of dealing solely with its debt.

Russian opposition figures have raised questions about how Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for new prime minister has acquired millions of dollars in property, as the State Duma hurriedly confirmed Russia’s first new premier since 2012.

The Russian president’s allies have rushed to support Mikhail Mishustin, the former head of Russia’s tax service, who claimed to have been stunned and “not [to have] slept all night” after Putin named him as the replacement for Dmitry Medvedev.

Supporters have praised Mishustin’s credentials as a technocrat and a “self-made man”. State television also boasted of Mishustin’s accomplishments in modernising Russia’s tax collection system, calling it “the best system in the world”.

Mishustin was confirmed by parliament on Thursday. No MPs in the State Duma voted against his candidacy, although Communist lawmakers abstained from the vote.

Speaking before parliament, Mishustin said he wanted to “restore trust” with businesses, and he focused on social concerns, saying “people should already now be feeling real changes for the better”.

Mishustin’s appointment is part of a sweeping reorganisation of the government that will help enable Putin to maintain power after his expected exit from the presidency in 2024 under term limits. Analysts said Mishustin may play a role as a “caretaker” figure but was unlikely to be Putin’s long-term successor.

The EU’s trade commissioner has suggested there could be a last-minute trade-off with Brussels offering the City of London access to European markets in return for European fleets retaining their fishing rights in British waters.

The UK’s financial services sector will lose its automatic right to serve Europe-based clients at the end of the transition period and the EU will need to negotiate access to UK waters for its fishing boats.

Phil Hogan, the former Irish minister who is now trade commissioner in Brussels overseeing the next stage of the Brexit negotiations, told the Irish Independent: “There certainly will be trade-offs, particularly at the end of the negotiations. The EU will be seeking concessions on fishery access and the UK will very probably be seeking concessions on financial services.”

Hogan, a longstanding critic of prominent Brexiters including Boris Johnson, described claims that the EU would be put under pressure to seal a deal by parallel UK-US negotiations as “fairytale economics”.

Negotiations on the future relationship between the EU and the UK after 31 January, the scheduled date for Brexit, are expected to start in early March once both sides have settled positions on the main issues.

EU diplomats were presented with the main principles of the free trade agreement on Monday in which “access to waters and quota share for fisheries” would be made “within the context of the economic partnership”.

Speaking in Luxembourg on Monday, Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, reiterated that the British government would also need to sign up to a series of commitments on state aid, environmental and labour standards to allow tariff- and quota-free trade.

She said: “Great Britain is our friend, the Brits are our friends, it is a friendship that has been growing for a long time but we have to break new ground with each other, and here it applies as well: it is the decision of Great Britain how close or distant of the biggest single market in the world they want to be.

“The closer they are, meaning a level playing field, the more they are ready to respect the European rules, the easier accession to the European single market will be. The further away, the less there is of a level playing field, the more difficult their access to the European single market will be. It is a decision Great Britain has to make and in the negotiations we will have to sound out the scope that we want to use to then determine the negotiations accordingly.”

Last week, Andrej Plenković, Croatia’s prime minister, whose country is taking over the presidency of the EU, conceded that Brussels would be unashamedly “political” and could threaten to block the City of London’s access to European markets if Johnson tries to exempt the UK from its laws. He also warned of the risk of skirmishes at sea similar to those during the 1970s cod wars if a deal on fishing rights was not secured.

Asked whether the EU would use its power to switch off the City’s ability to serve European clients, to gain leverage in the coming negotiations with Britain, Plenković said: “I wouldn’t go into the vocabulary of weapons but what I have learned in international and European negotiations [is] that all arguments and considerations are treated as political.”

On the third day of Milan men’s fashion week, the concept of the working man emerged as a theme in the newest collection from Prada.

The brand, which skipped Milan last season to show instead in Shanghai, showcased a collection which focused on formality and tailoring but with Miuccia Prada’s surreal touches. On a set that was designed to replicate a futuristic town square (a white statue of a man on a horse stood in the centre of the box-like runway), models replicated Prada-ised commuters on their way to work.

Three-piece suits were worn with trouser straps under the shoes, raincoats were accessorised with medical green gloves and riding boots and grey office trousers were matched with scoop-neck jumpers patterned with diamond-shaped optical illusions in red, black, yellow and grey.

Backstage, Miuccia Prada, surrounded by a throng of well-wishers including the actor Riz Ahmed, Quavo from rap trio Migos and Riverdale star Cole Sprouse, explained that the central idea behind the collection was the importance of the daily grind. “The only thing that makes me calm and optimistic is to give value to [your] job and work,” she said. “I want to give hope: if you do well in your job [and do it with care and intelligence, that’s something.”

The best looks, however, were the ones which seemed to shift away from this idea of “everyday heroism” and go somewhere a bit more out-there: an aubergine-coloured ruffle shirt and tangerine winter jacket that looked straight out of Harold and Maude, worn with a pink polo neck and red trousers.

Sartorial inspiration from traditional male archetypes has been plentiful this fashion week. On Saturday, Dolce and Gabbana featured a collection with nods to a number of workwear looks including the farmer, the painter and the builder, while Salvatore Ferragamo riffed on the looks of the sailor, the soldier, biker and businessman at their show on Sunday.

These thematic looks at masculinity were interesting to note, at a time when Milan men’s fashion week is making something of a comeback, with fewer mixed male and female shows; Gucci will host their first men-only show since 2016 later in the week.

After the show, Miuccia Prada touched upon environmental issues, saying that she was hopeful about the state of fashion, despite environmental concerns. “It’s incredible that in one year sustainability became a normal thing, I’m very optimistic,” she said.

Milan fashion week finishes on Tuesday.

The Roman Catholic church in Spain has unveiled a premarital guidance course lasting two to three years designed to prepare couples for the long haul and bring down the country’s high divorce rate.

At the moment, those wishing to make their vows in church need to attend about 20 hours of lessons to get them ready for the sacrament of marriage.

But according to the Spanish Episcopal Conference, that is nowhere near enough. On Thursday, the conference announced a much longer, voluntary programme called “On the Path Together”.

Divided into 12 areas – such as “communication”, “fidelity”, “the beauty of sexuality”, and “conflict resolution” – the course is intended to “accompany, prepare and help young couples towards the matrimonial vocation”.

The course’s guidance counsels against pornography, which “commercialises and falsifies the beauty of the conjugal gift” and can become addictive.

Media reports suggested the original guidance – later removed from the conference’s website – also stated that men think about sex two-and-a-half times more than women, and that wives need to be well rested in order to have sex.

One of the deleted paragraphs reportedly said: “On the days when he wants to have sex, the man should make a bigger effort and take on certain tasks (like taking the children out to the park or off for a walk for a couple of hours so that the woman can have a siesta). The woman should free herself up from certain work tasks and rest so that both can be ready for the sexual encounter when the time comes.”

A spokeswoman for the conference said it had learned of the passages in question after being alerted by the media but had not been able to find them.

“We checked our material and we couldn’t find it,” she said. “It’s not there. As we said in the press conference, these are constantly changing texts that need to be constantly updated as new issues are added.”

Monsignor Mario Iceta, the bishop of Bilbao and the president of the conference’s subcommittee for the family and the defence of life, said his own experience of marrying couples had demonstrated the need for more groundwork.

“You can’t prepare for marriage in 20 hours,” he said at a press conference in Madrid this week. “To be a priest, you need to spend seven years in the seminary, so what about being a husband, wife, mother or father? Just 20 hours?”

Iceta said that when he was a parish priest, he used to tell couples that the course was about more than obtaining permission to get married in church.

“I used to say, ‘That’s not true. You’re here because, according to the statistics, 40% of marriages break down within five years and 60% within 15 years – and that’s what we’re here to prevent.’”

In 2017, there were 57.2 divorces for every 100 marriages in Spain, down from 63 in 2007. The proportion was higher in Portugal, where there were 64.2 divorces for every 100 marriages in 2017, up from 54.8 a decade earlier.

In the UK, the number of divorces for every 100 marriages fell from 52.5 in 2007 to 41.8 in 2016.

Many in Spain attribute the high divorce rate to the “express divorce” lawintroduced 15 years ago by the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The legislation sped up the divorce process by doing away with the need for couples to be physically separated for a period before legal proceedings could begin. Prior to its introduction, many couples simply chose to live apart.

Figures from the National Institute of Statistics showed that 126,952 divorces were registered in 2006 – a 74.3% increase on the previous year.

At the time, the episcopal conference lamented the move, saying it now “costs less to get a divorce than to change your phone number”.

Although a divorce law was introduced during the Second Republic in the 1930s, it was abolished under Franco’s dictatorship and a new divorce law was not passed until 1981.

A man in Germany has died four years after being poisoned by a colleague and falling into a coma.

The state court in Bielefeld, which convicted the man behind the poisoning last year, confirmed the death on Thursday, the German news agency dpa reported. The 26-year-old victim’s parents had spoken about his suffering during a trial last year.

A 57-year-old man, identified only as Klaus O for privacy reasons, was sentenced to life in prison last March after the court found him guilty of attempted murder.

Klaus O, who is appealing against the verdict, peppered co-workers’ food with mercury and other substances over several years, leaving one in a coma and two others with serious kidney damage.

He was arrested in May 2018 after surveillance footage showed him putting powder in a colleague’s sandwich at their workplace in the town of Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock.

An unprecedented drive involving Europe, Russia and Turkey has been launched to broker a Libyan ceasefire, and end the risk of the country collapsing into total all-out war.

However, it is unclear to which extent the joint Russian-Turkish call for a ceasefire by 12 January should be seen as complementary or in competition to an intensified Italian-led European push to end the fighting.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin – who have each backed opposing sides in the Libyan conflict – together called for a ceasefire by midnight on 12 January.

At the same time, the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, hosted the two warring leaders – Fayez al-Sarraj, the prime minister of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and General Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the eastern military forces – in a summit in Rome.

But it appeared the initiative was running into difficulties even before it had begun: late on Wednesday it was reported that Sarraj refused to meet Conte because the Italian prime minister had previously met his rival, Haftar.

Haftar has been fighting to seize Tripoli since April and this week made a military breakthrough when his forces, known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), captured the coastal town of Sirte. His spokesman said the LNA was extending a no-fly zone immediately to include Mitiga airport.

Turkey recently announced it was sending military advisers to support the GNA while Russian mercenaries have been fighting on behalf of Haftar.

The Turkish military intervention, backed by the Turkish parliament, has been heavily criticised by Russia and the European Union.

A Turkish presidential spokesman, İbrahim Kalın, said Turkey only wanted to engineer a ceasefire, and called on the parties to return to the positions they held before Haftar mounted his attack in April.

“In Libya, our priority is to stop the clashes as soon as possible, the declaration of a ceasefire and all parties, particularly Haftar, to return to their positions of April,” Kalın said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“The Haftar side, which violates the agreement between Tripoli and Benghazi that was signed in April, continues its attacks recklessly. If this is not stopped, a political process in Libya will not be possible and more blood will be shed,” he said.

“Haftar gets away with any kind of attack in Libya, the international community even does not condemn [him],” he added.

Italy, which has historically been seen as a leading player in Libya where it has substantial energy interests, has been caught out by the unexpected Turkish intervention. Rome is facing criticism over its inability in more than two years to bring about a settlement in a country that has been ravaged by political and military disputes between east and west of the country ever since the western intervention to remove Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The Italian and Russian initiatives are not necessarily in conflict, but reflect the extent to which outside parties are intervening in the country, and are probably making it more difficult for the two internal warring parties to reach a settlement.

Haftar is strongly supported by the United Arab Emirates and Turkey claims it is acting as a necessary counterweight.

Sarraj expressed his frustration at Europe’s failure to describe Haftar as the aggressor. Sarraj said: “The suffering of the Libyan people must end instantly. We do not want Libya to be a land of escalation or war by proxy. The international community must take responsibility for ending this suffering.”

Mohammed Ali Abdallah, the GNA adviser for US affairs, said the withdrawal from Sirte was temporary and designed to avoid pointless bloody conflict.

“Let it be well understood, however, that the government will not allow Sirte to be overrun by Haftar and his army of Russian mercenaries,” he said. “Just as we liberated Sirte from Isis three years ago, we will again – and we will end Haftar’s self-declared ‘jihad’ against our country.”

Protesters gathered outside the Cypriot high commission before marching through London chanting “we believe her”, on the eve of the sentencing of a 19-year-old woman convicted of lying about being gang-raped in Ayia Napa.

A judge last week ruled the teenager from Derbyshire wilfully indulged in public mischief in claiming she was raped by a group of 12 Israelis over the summer, then retracting her allegations 10 days later.

She is due to be sentenced on Tuesday morning and could face up to a year in prison and a €1,700 (£1,500) fine. However, during her trial she alleged that Cypriot police forced her to sign the retraction after an eight-hour interview with no lawyer or translator present.

More than 100 protesters stood outside the mission with placards and banners calling for holidaymakers to boycott Cyprus. “The message we want to send is to the victim herself, to say you are not alone, we hear you, we see you,” said Verity Nevitt, who helped to organise the protest.

“We’re also calling out Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson for doing nothing … There has been multiple human rights violations [in this case] and the fact that it’s happened to a British citizen anywhere in the world is an outrage.”

Reports claimed the Briton would be granted a presidential pardon, although constitutionally this could only be awarded after sentencing and would not overturn her conviction of indulging in wilful public mischief.

“She would still have to appeal that,” one well-placed government source said. “The president will not intervene until after the sentence and we have to wait and see what that is.”

If the teenager receives a suspended prison term she will be able to walk free and return home immediately.

Despite the hopes of a pardon, fears grew on Monday that the judge, Michalis Papathanasiou, would deliver a tough sentence.

“We are not optimistic at all,” said Susana Pavlou, who heads the Nicosia-based Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies. “This is a judge who has been extremely aggressive in tone and attitude throughout court proceedings,” she said. “And his track record is poor in such cases. Our fear is that he will try to make an example of her.”

Papathanasiou gained notoriety for acquitting police officers accused of incompetence in the case of a Russian woman, Oxana Ratseva, who had been trafficked as a sex slave to the island and who subsequently fell to her death in mysterious circumstances in March 2001.

In 2017 he also refused to believe a local woman who had reported her partner raping her, arguing that her testimony was unreliable in court. The alleged assailant was acquitted.

More than 50 Israeli women, appalled by the treatment of the British 19-year-old, flew into Cyprus in a show of solidarity with Cypriot activists who have arranged a mass protest outside the court at the time of sentencing.

Some arrived at Larnaca airport wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words: “We Believe You.” Others carried banners that declared: “You’ll never walk alone.”

Sara Maimon, a 45-year-old Israeli nurse newly arrived from Jerusalem, said: “We are here to both protest injustice and support the victim. I hope it is meaningful to her that women in Israel believe her. There are people like me who also feel a little bit responsible that it was our citizens who did this to her.”

The Israeli women will also be demonstrating outside the Israeli embassy in Nicosia later on Tuesday. Protests are also planned in solidarity with the Briton in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning.

At Monday’s protest in London, Dorothy Muir, a former police officer who during her career investigated sexual offences, said she had concerns about what she had heard about the woman’s treatment by Cypriot police. “Nobody should be interviewed for eight hours without a solicitor or an interpreter in a foreign country,” Muir said.

Protesters marched from the high commission, near Piccadilly, to Parliament Square, via Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, pausing briefly outside Downing Street. They ended their protest by the statue of the suffragette Millicent Fawcett.

There Nevitt read out a statement from the teenager’s lawyer before reading out details of the case, including the injuries recorded on her body, her testimony about her experience on the night, the DNA from semen found on her body, how the Israelis involved had circulated explicit sexual footage of her online, and how their relatives had sprayed champagne and chanted “the Brit is a whore” on their return to Israel after their release.

“The message sent is, if you are attacked and report, don’t expect help or justice,” she said. “The case won’t be properly investigated and you’ll become the accused. It also sends a message to men that you can get away with sexual assault. That you won’t even be investigated.”

The standoff between the French government and trades unions over pension reforms reaches a critical point this week with talks due to resume amid calls for further walkouts and mass protests.

As the country returns to work on Monday after a two-week holiday, union leaders have called for a show of strength from workers in the public and private sectors and a blockade of refineries, threatening fuel shortages.

Talks between the two sides are due to restart on Tuesday after a month of industrial action that has brought transport chaos to Paris and elsewhere in the country. Unions have called for nationwide protests on Thursday and Saturday.

Yesterday police fired teargas at demonstrators in Paris’s busy Gare du Nord station, used by tourists taking the Eurostar service, at the Gare de l’Est and in the Bastille area during demonstrations in which several bins were set alight.

In his new year address, President Emmanuel Macron said he would not back down on pension reform but urged his government to find a “rapid compromise” to the crisis. Union leaders, however, have accused the government, led by Édouard Philippe, the prime minister, of deliberately dragging its heels.

“There’s no reason to stop the mobilisation,” Yves Veyrier, the general secretary of the Force Ouvrière Union, told the AFP news agency. “The priority is widening it as much as possible on Monday.”

The hardline CGT union has called for a complete blockade of oil refineries from Tuesday to Friday, which would lead to shortages at petrol stations and bring the country to a standstill. The government has said such action would be illegal.

Workers at the state-owned SNCF railways and the Paris transport network, the RATP, began their industrial action on 5 December, and have been joined by teachers, hospital staff and other public sector workers. Last Friday, the collective SOS Retraites – “SOS Pensions” – said it would be joining the protests; its 700,000 members cover a range of self-employed workers in the private sector, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, airline staff and accountants.

Air France’s second largest pilots’ union has also called on its members to join the strikes. The airline’s main pilots’ union has called off industrial action after “reassurances” from ministers that members will retain the right to retire with full pensions at 60.

In a joint statement, the union leaders behind the strikes accused the government of not wanting to find a solution. “Faced with this unprecedented social movement, the government is playing at dragging things out, with certain ministers stigmatising the sectors that refuse to negotiate regressions in their rights,” it read.

“The situation is far from calm. During his address, the president of the republic confirmed that he’s not listening and simply repeated the same things that have failed to convince anyone over the last two years.”

Eric Beynel, a spokesman for the Solidaires union, said nobody had much hope for the talks and accused the government of “playing for time”. Philippe Martinez, the general secretary of the CGT, has called on all French workers to join the strikes. “We have to sound the alarm even louder,” he said last week.

Macron made reforming France’s complex pension system an election pledge in 2017; this involves merging 42 individual systems into one universal points-based system. The government insists this will be fairer and hopes to encourage people to remain in employment beyond the official retirement age of 62 to 64. Unions, particularly those in the public sector whose members enjoy historical privileges, including early retirement on full pensions, accuse the government of eroding their rights.

Negotiations between ministers and union representatives are likely to continue until 22 January, when the reform will be presented to the council of ministers before being introduced to parliament. The talks will focus on the thorny question of pénabilité, or compensating those whose jobs involve particular hardship.

Sunday is the 32nd day of the strikes that have disrupted rail, Metro and bus services in Paris and elsewhere. The previous longest SNCF strike over wages and working conditions lasted for 28 days in 1986-87.

An opinion poll published in Le Figaro yesterday found respondents had a low opinion of everyone involved in the crisis. About 68% did not think well of Macron and Philippe but almost as many thought equally badly of the CGT (63%) and striking rail workers (68%). Opposition parties were unpopular with 75% of those polled. Support for the strikes remained relatively high at 61%.