PARIS, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- A poll released on Monday showed French President Emmanuel Macron's popularity suffered a slight slowdown in December when anti-pension reform protests and strikes were gathering pace.

Figures from Odoxa pollster showed that Macron's dissatisfaction rating rose to 67 percent in December, from 65 percent a month earlier.

"This ...is indeed small in view of the (social) anger and the support which the opponents of the pension reform still enjoy," said Gael Sliman, Odoxa's director.

Macron proposes to replace the variety of 42 different pension regimes for different professions with a universal points-based system allowing fair benefits for all.

While maintaining the legal retirement age of 62, the proposed new system encourages people to work two years longer to have full pension benefits.

To supporters, the reform aims to restore social justice and plug a pension deficit due to stand between 7.9 billion euros (8.75 billion U.S. dollars) and 17.2 billion euros by 2025 if nothing was done.

To critics, an overhaul of the current system would effectively force people to work longer, in particular, public sector workers who have been allowed to retire earlier often because of hard working conditions.

On Monday, the strikes in the public transport sector entered the 19th day.

Odoxa survey poll questioned 1,002 respondents on Dec. 18-19. (1 euro = 1.107 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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