French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that he would run for a second term in April's election to prop up the euro zone's second-largest economy through Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Will demand mandate.
Macron announced his bid in a letter published by several regional newspapers.
If he is successful, he will be the first French leader to win a fresh term in office for two decades.
"We haven't achieved everything we set out to do. There are choices that, with the experience I've gained from you, may have made differently," Macron said in the letter.
Macron has entered the presidential race just a month before the first round of elections to be held on April 10. Opinion polls predict he is the favorite to win a contest that sees many challengers splitting the vote to the right and left.
The Ukraine war has already overhauled the campaign, complicating Macron's entry into the race and leaving two far-right contenders who have run strongly in the polls to explain their now pro-Russian, pro-Putin stance. has done.
A campaign with fewer rallies by the incumbent and an unusual focus on foreign policy lies ahead, with Macron in European efforts to secure a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution of the conflict.