Ex-minister jumps into French presidential race

Bloomberg

Christiane Taubira, who served as justice minister in the last Socialist government, formally announced her intention to run for president in an already crowded race.
“I am a candidate,” Taubira said in a speech in Lyon, weeks after first touting a possible plan to run. “I have been meeting with the French, with you, in your daily lives. We must reinvigorate our democracy.”
President Emmanuel Macron is the front-runner for April’s elections, and until recently, polls suggested he’d most likely face nationalist leader Marine Le Pen or far-right pundit Eric Zemmour in the second round.
Those expectations shifted after the center-right Republican Party nominated Valerie Pecresse, a former budget minister, who now heads the Paris region, as its candidate. Pecresse has edged ahead of Le Pen in some surveys.
Macron is under increasing pressure as France struggles to contain the latest coronavirus wave in spite of high vaccination levels. The omicron variant sent daily cases soaring to record levels.
“I share with you an aspiration for a different way of government,” Taubira said. “We want a government that knows how to listen and to make clear and responsible decisions.”
In her speech, she cited higher wages and youth education subsidies among priorities. Taubira took a swipe at what she described as the current government’s “absence of social dialog” and “discriminations, on top of which are added, sometimes, words of contempt.”
Taubira, who’ll turn 70 in February, also noted the “severe” judgment of people on the centralized nature of power in France