Macron announces reelection bid

France's President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on February 17, 2022. © Ian Langsdon, AFP

The French president is leading a campaign that has been thrown off by the conflict in Ukraine.

Emmanuel Macron declared his candidacy for a second term as French president on Thursday, promising to lead "a unique French and European response" to the century's "challenges."

Macron wrote in a letter to several newspapers that "France had rarely been confronted by such an accumulation of crises" before assuming office in 2017, listing his efforts to reduce unemployment, guide the country through the coronavirus pandemic, and, most recently, respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He wrote, "This is why I ask for your trust in a second mandate as President of the Republic." "Faced with the difficulties of our century, I am a candidate who will work with you to develop a distinctive French and European solution." I am a candidate who will stand up for our values, which are being endangered by global upheavals."

Macron's announcement that he will run for president in April was widely anticipated, but the French president kept the public wondering about the exact timing.

When Macron surged into government five years ago, he did so as France's youngest president, pledging a spectrum of mostly liberal-centrist and pro-business reforms. However, some of those policies were unpopular, as evidenced by the big Yellow Jackets rallies in late 2018, which began as a protest against petrol costs but grew into a larger anti-government movement that swamped France's streets for months.

Macron praised his pre-pandemic efforts to make improvements over the previous five years, including lowering unemployment to a 15-year low, decreasing deficits, spending more in hospitals, research, and the armed services, modernizing agriculture, and reducing France's reliance on fossil fuels.

"All of this enabled us to gain credibility and persuade our major allies to begin constructing a robust Europe capable of defending itself and affecting the course of history," he said.

If re-elected, Macron said he will push for greater tax cuts, as well as a "preventive revolution" in health-care policy, try to maintain France's "age-old art of living," and "fight against disparities."

"Throughout my mandate, I have witnessed an unyielding spirit of resistance... a never-ending will to build," Macron wrote. "That is why the approaching election campaign is so crucial." The outcome of this presidential election will define the country's course for the next five years and beyond."