French presidential candidate to meet Merkel

The New York Times 23:01 - 25 February 2017

French presidential election candidate for the "En Marche" movement Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a meeting in Saint-Priest-Taurion, central France, on February 25, 2017

The exact date for the meeting has not been fixed yet.

Frances centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in March, his team said Saturday.

The exact date has not yet been fixed, they said.

The 39-year-old former economy minister, who has surged from outsider to a frontrunner ahead of elections in April and May, visited Berlin in early January but did not meet Merkel.

This will be the latest in a long line of meetings in the past few months Macron has had with foreign leaders.

On Tuesday, he met with British Prime Minister Theresa May in London.

The German chancellor received Macron's rival, former prime minister Francois Fillon, in late January, just before a French newspaper alleged that he paid his family for fake jobs while in parliament.

In 2012, Merkel had not met with then-presidential candidate Francois Hollande, now France's president, instead putting her support behind his rival Nicolas Sarkozy.