Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Sunday she would run for president in 2022, Reuters reports.

"Knowing the seriousness of our times and to give hope to our lives, I have decided to be candidate for the French presidency," the 62-year-old said when she announced her bid in the Normandy city of Rouen.

Hidalgo, who became the first woman to run the French capital in 2014 and is among the few senior left-wing politicians to emerge from President Emmanuel Macron's 2017 redrawing of the political landscape relatively unscathed, is polling at about 8% voter support in April's first round.

She promises a greener economy, the re-industrialisation in old manufacturing heartlands, putting citizens front and centre of the European Union and to improve education - but she has yet to put much flesh on the bones of her agenda.

As mayor of Paris, Spain-born Hidalgo has won plaudits for converting the once traffic-choked banks of the river Seine into bustling promenades, for getting tough on polluting vehicles and creating new bike lanes during the COVID-19 crisis.

Analysts say that any centre-left challenger will need to rally the greens and Socialists behind a single ticket to challenge for a place in the second-round run-off.

Polls currently show Macron and Le Pen as the most likely second round runners.