The socialist Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo announced her official candidacy for the French presidential elections, while the leader of the extreme right Marine Le Pen announced that she will quit the leadership of her party to focus her efforts entirely on next year's presidential elections.

Le Pen, 53, conceded the presidency of her party, the National Rally, to her assistant Jordan Bardella, while she presented her program in detail in a speech she gave in Fréjus. Hidalgo, 52, on the other hand, confirmed her candidacy in a speech in Rouen.

According to an AFP report, opinion polls suggest that Le Pen will pass to the second round of the presidential elections in 2022, knowing that she competed in the last elections with Emmanuel Macron, the current French President. As for Hidalgo, who is running for the first time, her chances of winning remain slim, according to opinion polls.

As Le Pen faces the prospect of competing with Éric Zemmour, the political writer and far-right polemicist whose electoral intentions remain ambiguous, Hidalgo conversely launches her campaign amidst a political scene packed with candidates ranging from the far-left and socialists to environmentalists.

Le Pen vows to withdraw France from NATO's unified command

Seven months before the first round of elections, Le Pen echoed her campaign slogan "Liberties", presenting some of its most prominent themes, such as the fight against immigration and the lack of security.

Le pen promised to organize a referendum on immigration as soon as she is elected and to adopt the maximum level of strictness in the fight against crime, vowing to put French delinquents in prison and foreigners on planes, and to restore the authority's iron-first in drug cities or areas that have become more like Taliban areas.

She promised to approve a popular consultation referendum that would allow the presentation of laws or legal amendments on citizens and a proportional electoral system.

On the international level, she stressed that France will withdraw from NATO's unified leadership, which, in her opinion, spreads the outdated war logic of the two former blocs during the Cold War, criticizing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on this occasion.

France will decide freely which wars or military interventions to go through to be determined according to its national interest, she said, stressing that no French citizen will go to his death in wars that are not France's.

Concerning European institutions, she promised to return power to the nations and said, "We will recognize the right of every country to prioritize its national interest," stressing its determination to "put an end to the crazy technocratic dictatorship" that she accuses European institutions of imposing.

Hidalgo did not reveal the details of her international program

For her part, Hidalgo dispelled speculations, declaring that she is a candidate dedicated to "providing a future for our children, all of our children," stressing her "experience" as mayor of Paris and her policy in combating pollution caused by automobiles, highlighting the environmental dimension of her campaign.

She declared, "We have to accomplish the environmental transformation", promising a "5-year plan to decarbonize our economy", and to start negotiations for increasing wages, expanding decentralization, and other topics such as the right to voluntary euthanasia.

Hidalgo did not reveal the details of her international program, just saying that she wanted a stronger and more confident France that can once again have its voice heard in Europe and across the world.

Both candidates attack President Macron

The two candidates attacked President Emmanuel Macron, describing him as "arrogant". Hidalgo said she wanted to "put an end to the contempt", stressing the importance of "respect".

As for Le Pen, who lost the last elections to Macron, she saw that "there is nothing more hateful than a government that shows contempt", going through the many demonstrations that took place during Macron's presidency, from the yellow vests movement to the protests against the French health pass aimed at combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

The two candidates addressed the issue of women, and Hidalgo confirmed that the 2022 elections could be an opportunity for the first meeting of a female French president with french women, promising that women would finally achieve full and complete equality in wages, as well as in careers.

Le Pen, for her part, spoke of women facing a lack of security, vowing to toughen penalties against street harassment and to fight for women's freedom. 

"We will restore the freedom of movement of women and girls without harassment or threats... at any hour of the day or night, in any neighborhood," she said.