At the entrance to this flea market in Devecey, north of Besançon, Stéphane Ravacley is posted with his supporters for a towing operation. Everyone here has at least heard of his story. “I am the baker who helped his migrant and I went on an eleven-day hunger strike in January” he throws. “Ah yes, okay!” responds a man. “I heard about you through my sister, adds a potential elector. And then there’s my little nephew following you!” Will she vote on June 12 and 19, as he asks? “Yes yes ! Anyway, I vote all the time, no worries. And I’ll vote for you, hey!”
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Baker in Besançon, Stéphane Ravacley distinguished himself by leading a hunger strike for the regularization of his Guinean apprentice. An unaccompanied minor, he had not obtained a residence permit when he came of age. The situation of the young man had finally been regularized by the prefecture of Haute-Saône. The baker’s hunger strike was a trigger in his political commitment. “During eleven days of hunger strike, no administration came to see me. It was not until the eleventh day that they rang me.”
“This administrative silence has made me someone else. Now I want some justice, now I want the world to change.”
Stéphane Ravacley, Nupes candidate in the 2nd district of Doubsat franceinfo
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On this flea market, the reception is rather good. “We know that he had it. He’s a bit like us simple people“, considers a passer-by. Simple, Stéphane Ravacley wants to remain so. He points his feet: “These are my professional shoes and I will wear them in the Assembly so as not to show off. Because I don’t have to look good, I have to be myself.“
And then, you also have to go and find those who do not seem enthusiastic. Convinced? “Not really, said this woman, after a hesitation. What scares me is that he didn’t know anything about politics before. It takes a minimum, anyway!” His lack of experience, Stéphane Ravacley brushes aside the criticism. “It’s not a problem, that. When you start something, you have no experience. You learn, that’s all. It doesn’t scare me.” And he intends to continue working. “Of course! When I return to Besançon, my place will be in my company, of course. I work at night, I will be at their service during the day.”
A few kilometers away, his main competitor, the outgoing deputy of the majority Eric Alauzet goes door to door, in Montfaucon. He is annoyed to see Stéphane Ravacley engage in this campaign. An opportunistic candidate, according to him. “Everyone is free to run, but it’s true that, in this period, we see people like that emerge quite brutally in the political landscape. I don’t know if that says a lot about the future, the sustainability, the commitment or the political line. I ask myself many questions“, he slips.
Chafia Kaoulal is a candidate for Les Républicains. Novice in politics, it is also his first election. If elected, she has a particular theme she wants to fight for: the purchasing power. “It is undeniable, today, purchasing power affects everyone. And we are seeing an impoverishment of society with families who are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet, if not is sometimes, downright, the beginning of the month.” She acknowledges that Stéphane Ravacley, “Indeed, has done a lot of things on the humanitarian side. I do it too. Except that I don’t put forward.”
Geoffrey Thomassin, candidate of the Pirate Party, wonders about the functioning of this union of the left in the event of victory of his competitor Nupes. “The problem is that in fact he will have to follow the lines of these parties, precisely. He will not necessarily be able to follow his ideas. We, at the Pirate Party, put ideas before men. We are a very democratic party: if we ever have ideas, we can have them voted on internally so that they fit into the program, for example.”
At the National Rally, even if his program differs from that of Stéphane Ravacley, Eric Fusis still identifies a little with him. “I am only different in terms of political ideas, because I too am a novice at this level of candidacy for a position of deputy. Fighting for a humanitarian or humanist cause, yes, why not? Of course! we are not anti-everything, we are not against absolutely all foreigners, etc. What scares us is growing immigration and uncontrolled immigration.”
In this second constituency of Doubs, Claudine Meyer is a regionalist candidate, Barbara Carrau for Reconquête, Jim Prenel for Les Patriotes and Brigitte Vuitton for Lutte Ouvrière.