France's Macron to kick off re-election bid on March 5

The declaration of his candidacy is now expected next week, just ahead of a March 4 deadline

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.

Mr. Macron has so far kept away from formal campaigning ahead of the April 10 first round, working around-the-clock in diplomatic efforts to 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 said Wednesday 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 Pecresse.

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.