(Paris) “We won’t stop like that”: opponents of the pension reform project, including in the ranks of so-called reformist unions, were still numerous on Wednesday wanting to continue the battle, whatever the scheduled epilogue in Parliament.

“We’ll see what we do next, but we won’t stop like that,” said David Morel, secretary general of the departmental union of the CFDT inter-union group, in the Rennes demonstration.

Whether the reform is adopted by a vote or by article 49.3, “I will continue to mobilize”, assures in the Lille demonstration Marie-Josée Delautre, employee in the automotive industry in Somain (Nord), 57, CFTC cardholder .

“Being a woman, I have a choppy career, and I will have to leave at 67 to have a full retirement, this is unacceptable! Women will never have a full pension at 64,” she laments.

“I already have knee and back problems, I start at 6 a.m. for a small salary” and “I’m on my sixth day of strike”, says in the Parisian procession Mariama Traore, 35, a CFDT union member who works in cleanliness.

“But it’s worth it. We must continue, do not despair, we will not let it go, it’s not over tomorrow even if there are fewer of us, “she says.

“We will continue until the withdrawal!” », Launches the CGT railway delegate Damien Scali during an improvised demonstration at the Euralille shopping center, where the railway workers received the reinforcement of Lille students.

“We already have a first victory, we feel that the population is with us”, underlines, in Rennes, Laurence Turbé, 55-year-old secondary school teacher and member of Snes-FSU, the first union of colleges and high schools.

“We will have to pass on ever more systematic blockages since we are never heard when we demonstrate”, estimates in Lyon, Thibaud, 46, activist of the NPA, far left party.

The goal now is that the reform, even adopted by Parliament, is “never applied”, as was the case for the law creating the CPE (first job contract) in 2006, under the Chirac presidency, says Pascal Michel, 58 years old, CFDT activist, engineer in genetic research at Inserm, who marched in Strasbourg.

However, the political consequences of adopting the reform are of concern to many.

“This forced passage is dramatic, because our fellow citizens must continue to have confidence in democracy”, judge in Nantes Dominique Lambert, 61, professor of history and geography at the Camus high school in Nantes and unionized at Snes.

“It is to wonder whether we should not change the Constitution”, to prevent the rulers “from overriding the decisions of the entire population”, estimates in Toulouse Jean-Luc Nivat, a CFDT employee of Thales.

“I think it will be paid for at the ballot box […] The National Front [now the National Rally] is growing more and more and for me, this is not a solution. Unfortunately, we will turn to that, because people are disillusioned, ”worries Nicolas Brulant, teacher in a vocational school, who came to demonstrate in Escaudoeuvres (North), where a factory will close.

“Politically, this reform will obviously benefit the government and the right. The far right perhaps, but not the left in any case, ”prognosticates Bernadette Drouillas, a 70-year-old home helper who parades in Guéret.

“What I’m sure of is that everyone’s going to lose their feathers. The distrust of the people towards the government, the break, it is total ”, declares in Nantes Patrick Delassale, 67 years old, secretary of the section of metal retirees at the CFDT and former programmer analyst.

Same observation in Brest for Denise Douarin, a 71-year-old former cook in a nursery, who came in a yellow vest and cap: “I will no longer vote if this continues because I think they are all the same”.