French far-right leader announces bid for 2022 prez polls

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right "National Rally" (RN) party, has officially announced her bid to contest in the 2022 presidential election.

In her New Year greetings message to the media, Le Pen said on Thursday that her candidacy to the upcoming presidential elections was "no doubt", reports Xinhua news agency.

"My project is to move towards national unity, a great unifying project that can bring together the French wherever they come from, a great project to get the country back on its feet," she said.

"The deep reasons of this decision to be a candidate does not cast any doubt on my will to win," she said, adding that "(President) Emmanuel Macron himself launched the campaign, I will not let him run alone".

To officially represent the anti-immigrant and nationalist party in the next race to the Elysee Palace, the 51-year-old lawyer needs the RN to validate her candidacy during its congress in 2021.

Le Pen, the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right party previously named as National Front (FN), was defeated by Macron in 2017 with 66.1 per cent of the vote against 33.9 per cent.