A year and a half ago, Stéphane Ravacley, 53, was an anonymous baker who worked hard to run his bakery in downtown Besançon.

Sunday the one who likes to say that he is "nobody", an unlabeled candidate invested by EELV with the support of Nupes, won his bet by taking the lead in the first round of the legislative elections in the second district of Doubs.

With 32.51% of the vote, he beat the outgoing deputy of the presidential majority, Eric Alauzet (31.36%).

“This path traveled is the continuity of the one I took in January 2021”, notes the craftsman.

He had then acquired national notoriety at the cost of a ten-day hunger strike to obtain the regularization of his Guinean apprentice, Laye Traoré.

Then he continued with the organization of a spectacular humanitarian convoy for Ukraine which had further strengthened his notoriety.

The tribute from the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who dedicated their Special Prize to him at the closing ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, has completed its transformation into a social symbol, convinced of being able to "change things from the inside ", at the heart of the political machine.

In the first round, "the union effect of the left, combined with his profile", led him in the lead, which "create a positive dynamic", analyzes the EELV secretary of Franche-Comté, Cécile Prudhomme.

Second round "very tight"

But with only 465 votes in advance and little reserve among the other candidates, Stéphane Ravacley knows that the second round "is going to be very tight" next Sunday.

The key to victory according to him?

Get the 47.61% of abstainers in his constituency to vote.

From Monday, after having started his day at 3:00 am at the bakery and having taken a short nap at midday, he therefore put on a white shirt to go back to the field.

"We want to change the face of the National Assembly, with people like me, who look like you, to bring subjects that look like us", he explains to parents at the end of the kindergarten in Roche-lez. -Beaupré, listing the measures of the Nupes program.

"We no longer want to vote, we no longer believe in it", replies Gaëlle Joyeux, a mother who nevertheless promises to "think about it".

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Emeline Domini, a 35-year-old nurse, recognizes this.

"It's good what you are doing! We identify with your fight: bakers, like nurses, are people who get up early and who make France live", notes this mother of three children.

"If I am elected, I will never be just a politician, I will remain myself," he promises her.

"You see these shoes full of flour, I will take them with me to the National Assembly, they will climb the steps, to remind me that I am here for you!", Adds the craftsman.

"The Experience"

For his part, the outgoing deputy Eric Alauzet can hope for a more favorable report of votes, including that of some of the LR voters (10.80%).

"I'm not basing myself on that, I'm talking to all the inhabitants to explain what my project is and that's what should make the difference", maintains the deputy Renaissance, satisfied with his score in the first round.

“My political project is clear and realistic, it takes into account the difficulty of the times, with the Ukrainian crisis, European construction, the Covid crisis, that of the climate and ecology, all these questions that I have been working on for a long time” , he points out.

Elected local environmentalist since 1990 and deputy for Doubs since 2012, this doctor had been re-elected in an armchair in 2017 when LREM had not presented any candidate against him.

He had joined the presidential party shortly after his election.

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"I am a solid, established and competent candidate, that's my strength," said the 64-year-old man, "on the launch pad for the second round".

“Experience counts a lot, otherwise we settle for slogans and lamentations,” he says.

© 2022 AFP