Commentator turned politician Raphael Glucksmann was on Sunday expected to announce his candidacy for France's presidential election next year, entering a field that is crowded even just within his left-wing spectrum.
Former essayist Glucksmann, 46, a European parliament deputy who leads the centre-left party Place Publique, is expected to use a prime time interview from 1800 GMT on TF1 television to declare he is standing.
His move is expected to have the immediate consequence that his partner the journalist Lea Salame, a top news reader on rival public France 2 TV, will announce she is stepping aside to avoid any conflict of interest in the campaign.
Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen scents her best ever chance of winning the Elysee but a host of candidates in the centrist camp of President Emmanuel Macron, who is not allowed to serve another term, as well as the left have announced they will be contenders.
Hard left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is planning to stand while Greens leader Marine Tondelier is campaigning while pregnant and Socialist Party (PS) leader Olivier Faure and even possibly ex-president Francois Hollande are mulling runs.
