French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann prepares to announce presidential bid

Center-left MEP Raphaël Glucksmann is set to announce his candidacy for next year's French presidential election within the coming days, according to three people close to him, with a prime-time television interview on Sunday seen as the likely venue for the announcement.

Glucksmann intends to enter a closed primary organized by the Socialist Party, which already counts former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal — who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 — and MP Philippe Brun among its contenders. Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure has also indicated he is weighing a run.

A divided left

Winning the primary would secure Glucksmann the backing of the Socialist Party, France's main center-left force, though the party has struggled to attract voters and is riven by internal disputes. Several prominent Socialists, including former President François Hollande and former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, have signaled they may skip the party primary altogether and mount independent bids.

Still, polling suggests Glucksmann — who leads his own small party, Place Publique — is currently the strongest center-left contender, having led the Socialists and their allies to a strong third-place finish in the 2024 European Parliament elections. Nonetheless, he and other candidates remain well behind far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen.

France's presidential election proceeds to a runoff if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round. If current polling holds, Le Pen is expected to secure one of the two runoff spots. To reach the second round himself, Glucksmann would need to outperform centrist and center-right rivals such as Édouard Philippe, as well as hardline leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who declared his candidacy in May and currently polls slightly ahead of him.

Glucksmann and Mélenchon differ sharply on several issues, including France's role in NATO — which Mélenchon opposes and Glucksmann supports — and pension policy. Mélenchon has pledged to lower the retirement age to 60, while Glucksmann favors linking retirement age to life expectancy and working conditions.