Former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre has officially applied to enter the race to lead the Quebec Liberal Party.

Coderre announced last June that he would run for the leadership, but has struggled to get ahead of media reports that he owes roughly $400,000 to the federal and provincial tax agencies.

He said in a press conference this morning that he has reached a “global agreement” with the agencies to resolve his debts.

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Coderre says he wants to know if representatives of the Quebec government tried to harm his candidacy by making his financial affairs public, and says he has hired a lawyer and could file a lawsuit against Revenu Québec.

The former mayor, who has also been a federal Liberal cabinet minister, says he wants to nationalize water and give more autonomy to municipalities as part of his plan for Quebec.

The presumed front-runner in the Liberal leadership race is former federal cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez, and the other candidates are Charles Milliard, former head of the federation of Quebec chambers of commerce, and tax lawyer Marc Bélanger.