Christiane Taubira, a left-wing politician and former justice minister, on Friday announced plans to contest the 2022 election for the French presidency.
In a short video released on social media, Taubira revealed her plans, saying she will put all her strength and not be “just another candidate.”
Formal announcement of her candidacy will be made in mid-January, she added.
Taubira is the second Black French woman to declare a bid for the country’s highest public office.
The announcement, coming just four months before the first round of voting in April next year, took many prospective candidates and political parties by surprise, though.
Her name will be one more addition to the crowded left-wing list who are vying for the presidency and planning to run separate campaigns. These include socialist candidate and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Greens–European Free Alliance’s Yannick Jadot, La France Insoumise’s Jean-Luc Melenchon, and the Communist party’s Fabien Roussel.
Speaking to France Bleu news, Jadot dismissed Taubira’s unconfirmed candidacy. “She plans to be a candidate, after five years of political retirement, with a three-minute video… for my part I did not ‘consider’ being a candidate, I ‘am’ a candidate for the presidential election.”
