Emmanuel Macron will announce his candidacy for the presidential election in a “Letter to the French” which will be put online this Thursday evening, we learned from his campaign team, confirming information from several media.
Mobilized by the war in Ukraine, the head of state will have waited until the last moment to formalize his candidacy for a second term, which the candidates must formalize before Friday 6:00 p.m.
This text should be put online around 8:30 p.m. on the sites of the regional press dailies.
At 38 days from the first round, Mr. Macron will thus officially become president-candidate and will be able to kick off a campaign disturbed by the conflict, which will also be one of the shortest ever carried out by an outgoing president.
Mr. Macron declares himself later than two of his predecessors who are candidates for a second term, Jacques Chirac in 2002 and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012, who had both declared themselves two months before the ballot. François Mitterrand in 1988 and Charles de Gaulle in 1965 had waited even longer, almost a month before the first round.
This expectation was strongly denounced by the outgoing president’s rivals.
Emmanuel Macron during a statement at the Elysee Palace on the war in Ukraine, in Paris on March 2, 2022
© AFP – Ludovic MARIN
The invasion of Ukraine, he himself admitted Wednesday evening in a speech on this crisis, “comes to strike our democratic life and the electoral campaign”.
This war also has an impact on the polls, which show that it favors the outgoing, as is often the case in times of crisis.
Thus, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia eight days ago, he has gained several points in the voting intentions, the polls giving him 27-28%, or ten points ahead of his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen (RN), who is widening the gap with Valérie Pécresse (LR) and Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!). The majority of French people approve of his action since the start of the conflict, according to polls.
Before the start of this crisis, he was already high in voting intentions, well ahead of his opponents, also reaping the benefits of his management of the Covid-19 health crisis and his “whatever the cost” policy. , generally welcomed by the French.
Despite this announcement to come, Mr. Macron remained focused on the international crisis on Thursday and still spoke for an hour and a half with Vladimir Putin on Thursday morning, far from the campaign trips on the ground that his party had planned before the crisis. .
This announcement will in no way be a surprise since he himself has alluded to it several times and his entire campaign team made no secret that everything was ready. The entire political class, the majority as well as the opposition, were waiting for this campaign, shaken up by current events and so far carried out in the absence of the favorite in the polls, to get off to a full start.
Emmanuel Macron at a press conference following a special European Council meeting on Ukraine in Brussels on February 25, 2022
© POOL – Olivier HOSLET
At 44 (since December 21), the man who had become the youngest president of the Fifth Republic in 2017 is returning to the campaign with the experience of a first term shaken by crises, in particular those of “yellow vests” and the Covid-19, and now by the war in Ukraine.
If he emerges as the winner on the evening of the second round, on April 24, he will have made a bet never before realized in the history of the Fifth Republic: to be re-elected by direct universal suffrage without leaving a period of cohabitation, as had says François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.
But his position as favorite remains fragile. As evidenced by recent polls which show him winning in the second round against all his opponents, including the best placed Marine le Pen, but with a smaller lead than in 2017.
Behind the scenes, the macronie has been organizing for weeks, between fundraising to finance the campaign, leaflets, door-to-door, creation of support committees and forums in the press of elected officials for a second term. Due to the war which has taken over his agenda and dominates all subjects in the media, he has canceled – or postponed – a first meeting which was scheduled for Marseille this weekend.
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