Stéphane Ravacley, the militant baker who wanted to become a deputy

Published on: 05/13/2022 – 07:41 Famous for having carried out a hunger strike in order to prevent the expulsion of his Guinean apprentice and organized a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine, Stéphane Ravacley will be a candidate in the legislative elections in France. An atypical candidate who intends to bring to the Assembly his fights for the integration of unaccompanied foreign minors or the defense of the environment. Stéphane Ravacley has been leading a double life for several weeks. The first begins in the middle of the night, when he puts on his artisan baker’s outfit, the job he has been doing for more than 35 years. The second begins at the end of the afternoon. This time, the baker with the build of a rugby player and renowned for his outspokenness, puts on the costume of the candidate for the legislative elections to campaign in the 2nd district of the Doubs. “I sleep in the afternoon, then around 17 h, I’m going with my team to a meeting, a public meeting or an organizational meeting”, specifies the candidate invested by Europe Écologie-les Verts (EELV) under the banner of the New popular ecological and social union (Nupes). Initially, nothing predestined this son of a farmer who grew up in a small village near Besançon, in the east of France, to go into politics. But his fight to prevent the expulsion of his apprentice, Laye Fodé Traoré, a young Guinean orphan who arrived illegally in France, transformed him. In January 2021, despite fragile health, Stéphane Ravacley began an 11-day hunger strike to obtain the regularization of his protege. He lost eight kilos, felt unwell, but his action attracted the attention of the national media and the sympathy of a large part of public opinion. “In the first days, I thought that the prefecture would contact me to resolve the situation. But no, they waited 11 days and it was this administrative silence that transformed me. After that, I was no longer at all the one I was before”, he confides. Situation “grotesque” Laye Fodé Traoré will finally be regularized on January 14. In the process, Stéphane Ravacley launched Patrons solidaires, a platform intended for business leaders facing a similar situation. Taken care of by the State when they arrive on French soil, unaccompanied foreign minors are then threatened with expulsion when they come of age.>> To see: Migrants in France: the pending future of unaccompanied foreign minors Approached by Senator PS Jérôme Durain, the militant baker, is working on a bill to allow apprentices to stay for a year after their 18th birthday – a proposal rejected by the Senate in October. not in the device, we will continue to bang our heads against the administrative wall: to be able to make things happen, you have to be able to get in there”, assures the 53-year-old craftsman. If he is elected deputy next June, its first priority will be to promote the integration of these young undocumented migrants who wish to work. “We protect them as long as they are minors, then we reject them at 18 when they work in companies where we lack arms. It’s completely grotesque!”, Protests the EELV candidate, who wishes to broaden the reflection to young people from Childhood Social Assistance (ASE) by continuing to support them until the age of 25. Nicknamed the “humanist baker” by the European deputy Raphaël Glucksmann, Stéphane Ravacley has also distinguished by sending 200 m3 of goods intended to help the Ukrainian population. “My other fight is practical and pragmatic ecology. I come from the peasant world and I know its difficulties. I am for Europe , but we must protect our farmers”, he adds. “The bottom of the ladder”With this candidacy, Stéphane Ravacley wants to transform the face of a National Assembly which has almost no more representatives from the working class. approach supported by the social entrepreneur Alice Barbe, who created the A Academy of Future Leaders, a school intended to train a new generation of politicians and in which Stéphane Ravacley has been training since the beginning of the year. “There is a problem of embodiment and distrust vis-à-vis vis-à-vis politics. Today, there is a huge need for more citizen representation. They are activists or social entrepreneurs who manage with very few means to have an extraordinary impact on the ground”, enthuses Alice Barbe, who describes Stéphane Ravacley as a “fighter”. The students of this academy, whose first The class also has Priscillia Ludosky, one of the initiators of the Yellow Vests movement, in its ranks, taking three days of classes a week, given by teachers from Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris. , climate, management or even personal development. . There are many people like me who come from the bottom of the scale. Alauzet, the best elected in France in 2017. “This constituency is winnable, even if it will be difficult”, recognizes with AFP Cécile Prudhomme, the regional secretary Europe Ecology-The Greens in Franche-Comté. >> To read: understand the French legislative elections in six questions The baker, for his part, displays unfailing determination. “I will be elected”, he insists. He plans to sit with the EELV group in the Assembly, but does not intend to join the environmentalist party to preserve “its independence”.