However, he is not yet officially a candidate. Emmanuel Macron crossed the first, this Thursday, the milestone of 500 signatures of elected officials necessary for the presidential election. Far ahead of its competitors who are battling the countryside in regions looking for a new dynamic.
With 529 sponsorships, the outgoing president took off ahead of his right-wing rival Valérie Pécresse (324 signatures) and the socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo (266), struggling in the opinion polls but with a party with good local relays ground.
At 66 days from the first round, the figures for sponsorships remain largely decorrelated from voting intentions: on the far right, Marine Le Pen has so far collected only 35 and her rival Eric Zemmour 58 while they are engaged in a fierce battle with candidate LR to qualify for the second round.
Four other candidates cross the bar of 100 sponsorships: the communist Fabien Roussel (159), the candidate of Lutte Ouvrière Nathalie Arthaud (138), the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon (100), leading the polls on the left (around 10 %), as well as Jean Lassalle (124).