Paris French President Emmanuel Macron has officially entered the race for the next presidency. The center politician announced his candidacy for the April elections on Thursday evening. The newspaper “Libération” published a letter from Macron to the population online, which will also be published in the country’s printed newspapers on Friday.
The 44-year-old is applying for a second term in the Élysée Palace, which he has headed since 2017. In polls, Macron has been in first place for months with around 25 percent approval, ahead of right-wing Marine Le Pen, conservative Valérie Pécresse and right-wing extremist Éric Zemmour.
“In the last five years we have survived a large number of trials together. Terrorism, pandemic, return of violence, war in Europe: France has rarely faced such an accumulation of crises,” wrote Macron, who refrained from announcing his candidacy in a speech because of the Ukraine war. “We haven’t achieved everything”, with today’s experience he would make some decisions differently.
But the changes introduced during his tenure would have given many French people a better life and France more independence. The crises of the past two years have shown that this path must be continued. “I therefore ask you for your trust for another term as President of the Republic. I am a candidate to find, together with you, a unique French and European response to the challenges of the century,” wrote the President.
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Macron started his tenure as a young political star and promised a fresh political start. With numerous reforms, he wanted to redesign the allocation of study places and the labor market and create a fairer pension system. In terms of foreign policy, too, he advocated a renewal of the European Union.
Again and again there were mass demonstrations against Macron’s reform plans. More than ever, opponents saw him as the embodiment of a political elite that lives detached from the concerns and problems of ordinary people. The protests by the yellow vests in particular put the president under pressure for weeks. The LREM (La République en Marche) party founded by Macron performed poorly in the 2020 local elections and the 2021 regional elections.
Macron got off to a flying start in the 2017 presidential election. As an outsider outside the classic party spectrum, he benefited from the divided left and the affair of the conservative candidate François Fillon about an alleged bogus job by his wife. In the runoff, the pro-European ultimately prevailed against Le Pen.
Macron grew up as the son of a doctor in Amiens, attended a Jesuit school and finally the elite university ENA. He worked as an investment banker until 2012, then advised the socialist President François Hollande and was Minister of Economy from 2014 to 2016. Macron was once a member of the Parti Socialiste.
More: Macron’s TV speech: “The coming days will be very difficult”