His entry into the electoral arena is serious and sober: a three-page "letter to the French" published on the sites of regional press newspapers.

Neither image nor video accompany it.

Emmanuel Macron will launch his campaign on the ground on Monday with a first planned trip, on the theme of education, we learned from his campaign team.

Mobilized by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Head of State will therefore have waited until the last moment to formalize his candidacy, which the candidates must formalize before Friday 6:00 p.m.

The "letter to the French" in which Emmanuel Macron announces his presidential candidacy, published on March 3, 2022 on the sites of the regional press newspapers Ludovic MARIN AFP

"I am a candidate to invent with you, in the face of the challenges of the century, a singular French and European response", he explains in the letter.

"I am a candidate to defend our values ​​that the disruptions of the world threaten", he adds.

However, he warns that he will not be able to "carry out the campaign as he would have liked because of the" international context, which has taken up most of his time for the past fortnight.

At 38 days from the first round of April 10, what face will his campaign take, which promises to be one of the shortest of the Fifth Republic?

Emmanuel Macron does not give any indication of the number of his meetings or his media interventions.

But he announces that, "with clarity and commitment", he will explain "our project, our desire to continue to move our country forward with each of you".

In his letter, where he uses the "we" more than the "I", the head of state who was elected at the age of 39 in 2017, recognizes that his five-year term has been shaken by a succession of "d 'trials': "terrorism, pandemic, return to violence, war in Europe".

“Rarely has France been confronted with such an accumulation of crises. We have faced up with dignity and fraternity,” he underlines.

"We have not succeeded in everything. There are choices that with the experience acquired with you I would no doubt make differently", adds this president often accused of arrogance and disconnection by some of the French.

Presidential 2022: Macron's confidence rating Kenan AUGEARD AFP

In favorite position

More than ever, Emmanuel Macron presents himself as the candidate of the progressive camp.

Because, he says, "make no mistake: we will not respond to these challenges by choosing withdrawal or by cultivating nostalgia".

"The challenge is to build the France of our children, not to rehash the France of our childhood", he launches, in an allusion to the far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour.

Facing them, Emmanuel Macron begins his campaign as a favorite.

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, he has gained several points in the voting intentions, the polls giving him 27-28%, or ten points ahead of Marine Le Pen (RN), who widens the gap with Valérie Pécresse (LR) and Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!).

President Emmanuel Macron addresses the French about the situation in Ukraine, March 2, 2022 in Paris Ludovic MARIN AFP

If he emerges as the winner on the evening of the second round, on April 24, he will have made a bet never before realized in the history of the Fifth Republic: to be re-elected by direct universal suffrage without leaving a period of cohabitation, as had says François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.

In his letter to the French, Emmanuel Macron gives some leads on his program, which appears faithful to the principles he has defended since 2017.

On the economic level, he affirms that "we will have to work more and continue the reduction of taxes weighing on work and production".

He also indicates that he wants to give "priority to the school and to our teachers, who will be freer, more respected and better paid" and also wants to "preserve and even improve the French social model".

Another stated ambition: "Put France in the lead in sectors which, such as renewable energies, nuclear, batteries, agriculture, digital, or space will make the future".

Emmanuel Macron also wants France to become "a great ecological Nation, which will be the first to emerge from dependence on gas, oil and coal".

© 2022 AFP