French moderate Raphael Glucksmann slated to enter crowded presidential race

PARIS — French commentator turned politician Raphael Glucksmann was on Sunday expected to announce his candidacy for France’s presidential election next year, entering a field that is crowded even just on the left wing of France’s political spectrum.

Former essayist Glucksmann, 46, is a European parliament deputy and son of the late renowned Jewish philosopher Andre Glucksmann. He leads the center-left party Place Publique, and is expected to use a primetime interview on French television Sunday night to declare he is entering the race.

His move is expected to have the immediate consequence that his partner, the journalist Lea Salame, a top news reader on public France 2 TV, will announce she is stepping aside to avoid any conflict of interest in the campaign.

Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen scents her best-ever chance of winning the Elysee but a host of candidates in the centrist camp of President Emmanuel Macron, who is not allowed to serve another term, as well as the left have announced they will be contenders.

Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is planning to run, Greens leader Marine Tondelier is campaigning while pregnant, and Socialist Party (PS) leader Olivier Faure and even possibly ex-president Francois Hollande are mulling runs.

Polls give Glucksmann, who is popular among young people in what some term “Glucksmania,” 10-12 percent of the vote, a creditable score but likely not enough to make a second round run-off.

To avoid too much dilution of the vote, the Socialists and Place Publique are planning to hold a primary in October to find a single candidate.

While Glucksmann strikes a more reformist and centrist tone than the PS, it is in his interest to work with the venerable party and benefit from its campaign machine.

He served in 2009-2013, while still a young tousle-haired idealist, as adviser to the strongly pro-Western former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili.

Now in jail in his home country, Saakashvili was a staunch foe of Russia after the 2008 war between the two nations.

As well as a champion of Europe who abhors the far right, Glucksmann is a strong supporter of Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

Beirut-born Salame, 46, had already acknowledged she would step aside from her job she has held since 2025 presenting the flagship news show if her partner ran for president.

But she has insisted she remains objective. “I am an independent, honest journalist — a free woman,” she said in February, while acknowledging questions about their personal and professional situation were “legitimate.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.