Dozens of protesters had gathered outside the Les Bouffes du Nord theatre on Friday evening where Emmanuel  Macron was watching a play, reportedly with his wife Brigitte.

Police tried to hold back the protesters but some managed to enter the building, amid chants of “Macron, resign!” and “We are here, even if Macron does not want us we are here”, Sky News reported.

A black car reported to be carrying the French president then sped away under a hail of boos.

According to reports, he later returned to the theater to watch the play – a modernist drama called The Fly.

The incident came on the 44th day of strikes aimed at overturning the French government’s plans to overhaul the country’s pension system.

On Friday, protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum and forced the famous Paris landmark to close.

Some museum employees were among the demonstrators who chanted: “Mona Lisa is on strike, Leonardo is on strike.”

It is the first time since railway strikes and protests against the pension overhaul began on 5 December that the Louvre and its Leonardo da Vinci exhibit were fully shut down.

Several dozen people also invaded the headquarters of the CFDT union, which favors a point-system that Macron wants to put in place to determine retirement benefits.

The protesters were seen on video singing and mocking the union’s leader.

Macron condemned the action as violent, unacceptable and “shameful for our democracy.”

Meanwhile, dozens of lawyers opposing the president’s proposed pension reforms put on a dance show in Versailles wearing their black robes.

Unions have called for a seventh-round of street marches next Friday when the contested pension plan is to be presented to France’s cabinet.

The weeks of strikes and protests have disrupted public transport, schools, hospitals, courthouses and even opera houses and the Eiffel tower.

Major French retailers Fnac Darty and Casino said that business in France has been badly affected by the strikes.

Fnac Darty said the strikes had cost it around €70m (£60m) in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, Casino estimates that the strikes in December cost it about €80m (£68m) in lost revenue.

The French prime minister’s office said earlier this week that the SNCF train authority and the RATP, which runs public transport, had lost more than a €1bn (£852m) since the start of the strike.

Trains have suffered most, so far losing some €850m (£724m).

While the number of striking workers has diminished since the movement, the country’s trains and the Paris subway were still disrupted on Friday.

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Union leaders on Monday rejected the government’s overtures and vowed to keep up the fight over the reforms, which are set to be finalized and published later this week.

Another mass demonstration is planned in Paris and other cities, with teachers and other workers once again expected to walk out alongside transport workers.

The unions want President Emmanuel Macron to abandon his plan for a single pension scheme that would scrap dozens of individual ones enjoyed by train drivers, sailors, lawyers, and other professions.

Critics say it will force millions to work later in life to get the same benefits but Macron has promised not to touch the official retirement age of 62.

Most Paris metro lines were shut completely on Monday leading to huge traffic jams — similar disruption is expected on Tuesday.

Just one in five high-speed TGV trains were running, and Air France has cut 25 percent of domestic flights scheduled for Tuesday and 10 percent of its shorter international flights.

Some Paris museums were again forced to partially close and both opera houses canceled again canceled performances.

Many people chose to work from home last week and are only now returning to work, making this week a crucial test of public support for the strike.

“Psychologically it’s stressful because you don’t know if you’re going to get where you need to,” said Benit Ntende as he waited for a train at Paris’ Saint-Lazare station, AFP reported.

“You have to wake up earlier — it’s one of the joys of life in Paris.”

Some 53 percent of French-backed the strike or at least had sympathy for the workers’ demands, according to a poll published on Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

The government’s pensions commissioner Jean-Paul Delevoye held a final meeting with union leaders on Monday to try to end the strike.

But unions appear in no mood for further negotiations — 800,000 people turned out last Thursday at the start of the strike, the biggest show of strength in years.

“I will not negotiate over the implementation of what I describe as a monstrosity which endangers tomorrow’s pensioners,” said Yves Veyrier, head of the militant Force Ouvriere union.

Last week, transport workers were joined by teachers, firefighters, electricity workers and “Yellow Vest” anti-government demonstrators — who launched weekly protests to demand improved living standards last year.

Hospital interns plan to walk out on Tuesday to highlight “degraded care” and lorry driver unions said they would take action next week.

On the sixth day of pension strikes, they have already squeezed retailers in the run-up to Christmas, raising the prospect of another bleak year-end after the unrest caused by the yellow vests in late 2018.

“This weekend was catastrophic: Paris was empty, restaurants and brasseries, even fast-food was impacted, with some losing up to 50 percent of their sales,” a spokesman for the GNI-Synhorcat alliance of restaurant and hotel owners said.

Jacques Baudoz, president of the Joueclub chain of toy stores, told Europe 1 radio that revenue dropped 20 percent at stores in larger cities.

Macron, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and senior cabinet ministers are set to meet on Tuesday night before presenting the finalized plan.

“If we do not carry out a far-reaching, serious and progressive reform today, someone else will do a really brutal one tomorrow,” Philippe told Le Journal du Dimanche.

Unions are hoping for a repeat of 1995 when three weeks of strikes forced the then center-right government to withdraw its pension reforms.

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