Macron last to join fray with bid for second term

French President Emmanuel Macron formally announced on Thursday that he would run for a second term in the presidential election just six weeks away, an election that he would win based on the current polls.

The decision was announced a day before the Friday evening deadline and came in the form of a 1,000-word "letter to the French" published in several French regional newspapers.

"Over the past five years, we have faced many trials together. Terrorism, the pandemic, war in Europe: rarely has France been faced with such an accumulation of crises," Macron said.

He admitted that "we have not succeeded in everything".

"There are choices that, with the experience I have acquired, I would no doubt make differently. But the transformations undertaken during this mandate have enabled many of us to live better, and France to gain in independence," Macron said.

Macron became the youngest French president in 2017 when he was only 39 years old. His first term will end on May 13.

The 44-year-old said that he is asking French for their "confidence for a new mandate as president of the Republic".

"I am a candidate to… respond to the challenges of the century. I am a candidate to defend our values … I am a candidate to continue to prepare the future of our children and our grandchildren," he said in the letter.

Macron said that his priorities during a second term would be to invest in education to combat inequalities, to slash taxes further and to boost investments in research and development in order to place France at the forefront of sectors such as renewable energies, nuclear power, batteries, agriculture, digital technology and space.

Macron was the last candidate to declare his hand and his delay has been heavily criticized by his opponents, who accused him of covertly campaigning through his role as president and thus not having to abide by election campaign rules.

The French presidential election will have two rounds, with the first one to be held on April 10 and a runoff between the top two candidates on April 24 if no candidate wins a majority of the vote in the first round.

Polls have shown Macron as the front-runner. The latest poll by IFOP, a French public opinion institute, showed that Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen would lead in the first round and qualify for the runoff with Macron obtaining 28 percent and Le Pen gaining only 17 percent. The numbers for the second-round vote indicated that Macron would secure 56.7 percent to win the election.

Agencies contributed to this story.