The far-right TV commentator Eric Zemmour has joined the presidential race in France, with the election set to take place in April 2022.

"No other politician has the courage to save the country from the tragic destiny that awaits it," Zemmour said in a video announcing his decision to run. Against a background of scenes of street violence and poverty, he promised to "save" France.

"Immigration is not the cause of all our problems but it aggravates them all," he said.

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Reading from a printed script in front of bookcases lined with leather-bound volumes, Zemmour evoked French heroes from Joan of Arc to Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle to Brigitte Bardot, telling viewers he would deliver a return to traditional values.

For a time, Zemmour was polling ahead of fellow far-right politician Marine Le Pen but a series of campaign mishaps have seen his lead slip away. Most pundits anticipate one of the pair will face Emmanuel Macron in a run-off vote for the presidency.

Zemmour has positioned himself around controversy. 

He was convicted of incitement of racial hatred 10 years ago and is facing further charges after describing unaccompanied child migrants as "thieves, killers and rapists." 

A challenge for Marine Le Pen 

For two generations, one family has had a hold on France's far-right politics. Jean-Marie Le Pen made it into the second-round of the presidential election in 2002. In 2017, his daughter Marine faced Emmanuel Macron in the run-off. 

She now faces a battle on her hands as Zemmour wants to be the new cheerleader for the hard-right. 

Sixty-three-year-old Zemmour is a well-known media commentator and he was a columnist for center-right newspaper Le Figaro. 

He is igniting fierce debate about his policies. His speeches are regularly peppered with incendiary remarks in a style reminiscent of another TV personality: one in the U.S., who made it all the way to the White House. 

"There are many links to Donald Trump with what he says, also something of [Russia's President] Vladimir Putin with his masculinity," said Virginie Martin, a political analyst. 

"He [Zemmour] wants to put manliness and male strength at the heart of the debate." 

However, there are signs that French voters have begun to tire of his provocative style. His poll ratings plummeted after a visit to Marseille last weekend when he raised his middle finger to a protester.