Rachel Keke

A CGT trade union representative[2] between 2019 and 2021, she was one of the leaders of a successful strike by housekeepers at the Ibis hotel in Batignolles, Paris.[7] Twenty workers, employed as subcontractors, struck for better pay and improved working conditions beginning in July 2019, and signed an agreement winning virtually all their demands in May 2021.[8]

In the first round of the 2022 French legislative election, Keke was a candidate for La France Insoumise (LFI) on the New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES) slate, the left-wing alliance of political parties. Running for the 7th constituency of the Val-de-Marne department, Keke finished first with 37.22% of the vote; Roxana Maracineanu, former Sports Minister and Olympic silver medalist swimmer, came in second, making the runoff with 23.77%.[5][9] Keke's campaign focused on outreach to non-voters, while Maracineanu called for a "republican front against the far left"; this drew criticism from the NUPES who saw this as equating them with France's extreme right.[6] In the second and final round, Keke won by 177 votes, scoring 51.38% of the vote against 48.62% for Maracineanu.[10] A profile by France24 noted that Keke's election (along with other newly elected deputies such as Rassemblement national's Katiana Levavasseur) indicated a growing trend of elected politicians from lower economic backgrounds taking up office.[11]