The grandson of a Soviet spy has launched a bid to succeed Emmanuel Macron as France`s president, writes The Telegraph.

"Raphael Glucksmann hopes to challenge Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hard-Left firebrand, to become the leading candidate of the Left in the race for the Elysee Palace. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the hard-Right National Rally party, consistently tops first-round voting intentions.

Potential challengers from the political centre and Left face an uphill battle to defeat her in a run-off, according to opinion polls.

"Yes, I am a candidate for the presidential election," Mr Glucksmann told French TV channel TF1. "Are we going to hand our country over to the far Right? Faced with such a choice, I could not stand aside."

Mr Glucksmann, a pro-European ⁠MEP who led the mainstream Left alliance in the 2024 European Parliament election to 14 per cent of the vote, is a wealthy and well-connected member of the Parisian establishment. His grandfather is Rubin Glucksmann, who emigrated to Palestine in the 1920s before becoming a communist and being recruited by the Comintern, the body set up to carry Bolshevism around the world. He worked as a Soviet spy in France, Germany and in Britain, where he pretended to be a businessman.

Mr Glucksmann studied at Sciences Po, the higher education institute in Paris that is the breeding ground for the country’s future leaders, before embarking on a career as a journalist and documentary maker.

"Left must stand firm on its principles"

He trails Mr Mélenchon in opinion polls and a key question is whether ⁠he – or other potential centre-Left candidates – could unite moderate Left-wing forces.

"The Left can win the presidential election if it stands firm on its principles," Mr Glucksmann said. "We must stop being afraid of Mélenchon."

Mr Glucksmann`s candidacy comes as France’s political class returns from the summer break and gears up for what is expected to be a highly polarised presidential contest ahead of the vote in April and May 2027. While being critical of some of Mr Macron`s pro-business policies, Mr Glucksmann has advocated ⁠a similar pro-European, pro-Ukraine line, positioning himself as a staunch defender of liberal democracy.

Yet it is not only his politics that ⁠have thrust him into the spotlight. His relationship with Lea Salamé, the star presenter of France 2 TV`s flagship evening news programme, has become a recurring subject of media attention, with newspapers dubbing them one of France`s top "power couples".

Over the summer, pictures of the couple on a beach in Corsica appeared in Paris ⁠Match, ⁠a celebrity magazine that has been a launchpad for presidential hopefuls over the past decades.

French media report Salamé will withdraw from anchoring duties on the public broadcaster during the presidential campaign to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest", - reads the article.