XAVIER BERTRAND

French President Emmanuel Macron hasn’t officially declared that he’s a candidate for April’s presidential election yet.

Xavier Bertrand, the rising star of the French conservative party, on Monday called for Right-wingers to unite behind his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election. Mr Bertrand, who has warned against ‘punishing’ Britain for Brexit, issued the rallying cry after fighting off the far-Right in regional elections this weekend. The 56-year-old is seeking to oust Marine Le Pen as the alternative to President Emmanuel Macron in any second round run-off in the crucial vote this spring. “Let's form a

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party was decimated in this weekend’s regional elections and Marine Le Pen’s far-right party failed.

French conservatives have emerged as an unexpected third contender to break the much-anticipated 2022 duel between far-right leader Marine Le Pen and President Macron after both fared worse than expected in regional elections over the weekend. "Everyone has understood that the presidential election is now a three-way race," boasted mainstream-right leader Xavier Bertrand after he comfortably defeated his far-Right opponent in the northern Hauts-de-France region. The mainstream right's success in

France's far-right suffered defeat at the hands of the traditional right in two key battlegrounds in Sunday's regional elections, exit polls showed, dealing a blow to its leader Marine Le Pen's presidential ambitions. The southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region had been seen as the far-right Rassemblement National’s best prospect for bringing credibility to Ms Le Pen's claim that it is fit for power ahead of the 2022 presidential election. An exit poll by IFOP showed the far-right winning 44.

Marine Le Pen’s once-ascendant far-right party is struggling ahead of runoff elections for France's regional leadership.

Emmanuel Macron's plot to destroy France's traditional Right has suffered a humiliating electoral setback, casting doubt on predictions of a two-horse duel with Marine le Pen in next year's presidential race. The French centre-Right has come out the big winner in the closely watched first round of regional elections in which the Mr Macron's LREM party and far-Right leader Marine Le Pen fared far worse than expected. With the polls so off-kilter and amid record-low turnout of around 34 per cent,