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Paris / AFP
French ex-economy minister Emmanuel Macron, a 38-year-old political novice, announced his bid for the presidency on Wednesday, as an alternative to the “same men and same ideas” that have guided France for decades.
Macron finally ended speculation about his intentions by announcing his candidacy for his “En Marche” (“On the Move”) centrist party from a training centre in a gritty suburb northeast of Paris.
Never elected and “neither of the left or the right” in his own words, the pro-business and technology-savvy former investment banker is hoping to shake up a race between older, more familiar figures.
“I’m ready, that’s why I am candidate for the French presidency,” he said, promising a “democratic revolution” that would restore France’s optimism and self-confidence. The centre-right Republicans party is tipped to win the two-stage election in April and May, but some analysts are questioning their assumptions after Donald Trump’s stunning upset in the United States.
The far-right National Front under leader Marine Le Pen, who announced her election campaign logo on Wednesday, is seeking to capitalise on a surge in nationalism and anti-globalisation.
Macron, who quit the beleaguered Socialist government in August to focus on his own political movement, is expected to steal centrist voters from the Republicans and the left. A poll Tuesday showed him as one of France’s most “presidential” figures behind the favourite Alain Juppe, a 71-year-old former prime minister from the Republicans who has one of the longest CVs in French politics.
Macron by contrast has a meagre two years in government as a sometimes rebellious economy minister from 2014-2016 and time as an advisor to his former mentor President Francois Hollande.