Emmanuel Macron faces a union showdown after he unveiled ambitious labour reforms and asked the "impatient" French not to judge him after only 100 days in office.

France's major hardline union, CGT, blasted the reform as a "declaration of war" that spelled "the end of the work contract". It called for massive street action on September 12 from "workers, pensioners and the young", along with the smaller CFE-CGC union. Other protests could follow.

The broadside came minutes after Mr Macron's government outlined a major overhaul of France's draconian labour code in what has been dubbed a "make or break" moment three months into the president's five-year mandate.

While the CGT opposition was expected, in a blow to Mr Macron, the moderate CFDT union was also surprisingly negative, calling the reform "disappointing" and aspects of it "dogmatic" - but stopped short of calling for strikes. However, Force Ouvrière, another leftist union, struck a more conciliatory tone.

With France's mainstream Left and Right in tatters, political opposition to the reform is being led by the radical France Unbowed of leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which is planning a mass march in Paris on September 23.

With his popularity nosediving, the reform is seen as a crucial test of Mr Macron's ability to drive through the reform by executive order and not bow to inevitable street protests.