President Emmanuel Macron will launch his re-election bid on March 5 at an inaugural campaign rally in Marseille, sources in his party said Wednesday, reports FRANCE 24.
Macron has so far kept away from formal campaigning ahead of the April 10 first round, working round-the-clock in diplomatic efforts to a avert a war caused by a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The declaration of his candidacy is now expected next week, just ahead of a March 4 deadline. Three sources in his centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) party told AFP on Wednesday told AFP his first rally would then be on March 5 in Marseille.
Polls have steadily indicated that Macron is likely to come out on top in the first round of voting on April 10.
Yet the polls also suggest that securing a second five-year term in the run-off vote two weeks later is far from a foregone conclusion, as the far right has continued to make inroads in recent years.
The extreme-right vote is currently divided between two candidates, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, trailed by the conservative candidate Valerie Pécresse.
Analysts say low turnout -- nearly one in four voters did not cast ballots in the 2017 contest -- could add another layer of uncertainty to the first-round outcome.