At 37 days from the first round, the horizon of this campaign which will be express has cleared up and the contenders for the Elysée are trying to position themselves as the one who will be the only one capable of beating Mr. Macron in the second round, denouncing the assessment of his five-year term.

But the task is not easy.

Attacking the legitimacy of a president in the midst of war in Ukraine limits the candidates' room for manoeuvre.

Especially since he benefits from his stature as head of state having had to manage, successfully according to the pollsters, two other crises, the "yellow vests" and the Covid pandemic.

For the president, one of the challenges is not to declare victory too soon or to bear the brunt of a demobilization of the French against a backdrop of fears of record abstention in April.

"The situation is hyper unstable with the context. We are going to undergo an agenda that will crush everything. We do not want to say that the election is done. But he does not need to do too much", confides a minister to the AFP.

His travel schedule remains very uncertain due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict but he was due to post a video on social media on Friday at 6 p.m.

And this weekend his team will distribute nearly 2.5 million leaflets.

In an excerpt published on the "Emmanuel Macron with you" account, he explains that "if at every second, we consider that trust is acquired and that we do not have to question ourselves and go get it, solicit, at that moment, we lose".

The letter to the French from outgoing President Emmanuel Macron announcing his candidacy for a new term published on March 3, 2022 Ludovic MARIN AFP

The outgoing president enters the campaign carried by a leap in a BVA poll carried out before the announcement of his candidacy.

He gained 5 points in the voting intentions in 15 days, to reach 29% in the first round of the presidential election, far ahead of Marine Le Pen, who lost 1.5 points to 16%, Eric Zemmour (13%, -1.5 pt) and Valérie Pécresse (13%, -0.5 pt).

The opposition castigates a late entry into the campaign and calls for a debate.

President Emmanuel Macron in front of the Louvre Pyramid after his presidential victory, May 7, 2017 Eric Feferberg AFP / Archives

Republican candidate Valérie Pécresse on Friday demanded an "absolutely necessary" televised debate in this "amazing" campaign.

Rejoicing that he is finally "entering the campaign" to "confront the reality of the state of France", she believes "that he cannot today put himself above the people and not come in the arena to debate".

"Referendum"

For his part, the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour, who was heckled by about fifteen people shouting "Zemmour collabo" during his visit to the Agricultural Show on Friday, lamented that the war in Ukraine "diverts the focus on major issues for France in the next five years".

Mr. Zemmour was also sentenced on Friday for "copyright infringement" after the unauthorized use of film images in his candidacy announcement clip, according to the judgment of which AFP obtained a copy.

His entourage has indicated that he will appeal.

Eric Zemmour, presidential candidate (Reconquest!), at the Paris Agricultural Show on March 4, 2022 BERTRAND GUAY AFP

For the interim president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, the presidential election "takes on an issue of civilization and takes the form of a referendum on the extremely simple question + for or against Macron +".

In the bidding, the LR boss of the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, denounced to him in front of local elected officials a president "both monarchical and dictator" before withdrawing his remarks in a tweet.

Rififi at the Greens

On the side of the Greens, dissension burst into the open with the exclusion of the finalist of the environmental primary Sandrine Rousseau from the campaign team of Yannick Jadot for vitriolic remarks on his strategy.

For Mr. Jadot, whose campaign is slipping, "it's a form of clarification after weeks and weeks of interference".

According to the average of the polls, the environmentalist candidate is credited with around 5% of the voting intentions.

On the other hand, the suspense is practically lifted in the race for the sponsorship of elected officials this Friday which is also the last day to register on the electoral lists.

The EELV presidential candidate Yannick Jadot at the Agricultural Show on March 3, 2022 in Paris Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP

The Constitutional Council will stop accepting signatures from elected officials at 6 p.m. and will announce on Monday the final list of candidates who will be running on April 10 in the first round of the presidential election.

The last doubts concern the far left candidate Philippe Poutou (NPA), who claims to have obtained 500 sponsorships.

He has 439 at the last count published on Thursday.

"It's not official yet, but we snatched this place," he told AFP.

If Mr. Poutou obtained the 500 signatures, there would be 12 candidates on the starting line, as in 2017.

© 2022 AFP