French far-right politician Marine Le Pen to stand in 2022 election

French far-right politician Marine Le Pen said on Friday she would stand in the 2022 presidential election and that she thought victory was entirely “plausible”.

“I am once again standing as a presidential candidate, before you,” Le Pen, who heads up the far-right Rassemblement National party, told a news conference.

President Emmanuel Macron defeated Le Pen in the 2017 vote. Opinion polls again put Macron and Le Pen as the likely two candidates to make it through to the last round in the 2022 election, with Macron seen as the eventual winner.

Nevertheless, concerns about his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and worries about terrorism, immigration and violent crime, have dented Macron’s standing.

Last month, Xavier Bertrand, a conservative politician who previously served as health minister in 2005-07, also declared his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election.