 Mitterrand said he was not sure he would run, and meanwhile, his internal rival Michel Rocard campaigned for the nomination.The favourite to win the election according to the polls, the incumbent president announced his candidacy at the end of March.He wrote an open letter to the French, where he proposed a moderate programme ("neither nationalisations, nor privatizations") and advocated a "united France" against "the appropriation of the state by a clan", targeting Chirac and the RPR.