PARIS, France (AFP) — A former interior minister of France who heads the country’s right-wing Republicans party, Bruno Retailleau, announced Thursday he will run in the 2027 presidential election, in a message shared with his party members seen by AFP.

“It’s a decision I have thought through carefully,” Retailleau said. “The time has come for my political family to show the French a new path, focused on order, prosperity, and French pride.”

Retailleau, 65, is the latest heavyweight to join the race, in which current President Emmanuel Macron will not be running having reached his two-term limit.

“I’m ready to lead this project, but this adventure can only be a collective one,” the Republicans leader wrote.

“I need you — your support and your personal involvement in a campaign that must first bring together our political family, its members, and its sympathisers.”

Retailleau, who stepped down as interior minister in October, is expected to publish a statement on social media later Thursday before appearing on television channel TF1.

A poll last month found that Retailleau was the most popular possible right-wing candidate among supporters of his camp.

Centrist ex-prime minister Edouard Philippe, 55, has also said he would be running.

On the far right, an appeals court ruling in a fraud case should in July determine whether three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, 57, can be a candidate.

If it upholds a ban from office, she has said her lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 30, would take her place.

A poll in November predicted that, should he run, Bardella would win the second round of the 2027 elections, no matter who stands against him.