On Wednesday, Mr Macron was accused of carrying all three “hats” – French president, EU president and candidate – on a trip to northern France, in which he announced €200 million in funding for the former mining region and was – unusually – due to meet EU interior ministers in Tourcoing to push strengthening the EU’s external borders against migrants illegally entering the bloc’s passport-free area.

Nationalist rival Marine Le Pen, who polls suggest could reach the second-round runoff against Mr Macron, should he run, said: “There is a form of disdain to come wearing a presidential hat when he is candidate to make promises with the checkbook for the Republic which he knows full well won’t be kept.”

Mr Macron is not obliged to throw down the gauntlet until March 4 and his supporters point out that most of his predecessors were similarly last-minute — most notably François Mitterrand who campaigned for barely a month before winning.

“His competitors can keep on choking, Emmanuel Macron is soaring above these final weeks with the self-assurance of a lammergeyer,” wrote La Voix du Nord’s Julien Lécuyer.

Aides have also indicated Mr Macron is unlikely to take part in any televised debate before the first round.

Failure to do so would be “cowardly”, said conservative Valérie Pécresse from the Republicans Party, who is vying for a place in the second round with Ms Le Pen.

“I see a president who is scared of debating,” she told CNews on Wednesday.

“I find it totally cowardly not to come and defend his record in person. He needs to be shown to the French,” she said, slamming his record on crime, immigration, schools and health.