Macron to seek second term in France Presidential election

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will run for a second term in April's presidential election. He is already leading in the polls. In a letter to the French published on domestic media websites Macron said that he seeks their trust again. 44 years old Macron,  had long indicated that he wanted to run in the election, scheduled to be held in two rounds on April 10th and April 24th, without formally announcing it until now. But his initial campaign plans have changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Conservative candidate Valérie Pécresse and two far-right figures, Marine le Pen and Eric Zemmour, are expected to be his main challengers.

Left-wing candidates run divided in the race, none of them appearing in a position to qualify for the run-off. Christiane Taubira, a champion of minority groups, dropped out of the race this week because she had not managed to get enough support. Macron's popularity in recent months has remained relatively stable, with an approval rating hovering around 40% depending on polling institutes — higher than his predecessors Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy had after nearly five years in office. When Macron was first elected in May 2017 on a pro-business, pro-European platform, he had little political experience. A former investment banker, he had been economy minister from 2014 to 2016 under Socialist President Francois Hollande. In the past weeks, the centrist president has dedicated most of his time to diplomatic talks with world leaders and coordination with European and other Western allies.