BY THE time François Hollande finally appears on stage just before 7pm, the thousands of supporters gathered in the Palais des Sports in Lyon are in a mood to rejoice.
The build-up has reached its climax with a slickly made video that tells the candidate’s personal story, interspersed with reminders of the cherished achievements of past socialist governments.
Each one – abolition of the death penalty, civil partnerships, retirement at 60, the 35-hour week – is greeted with a thunderous roar.
Word has filtered through of a new opinion poll showing Hollande has extended his lead by a point, bringing a halt to a week of gains by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Suddenly, the music is jacked up a few notches and the screens fill with the familiar, bespectacled face of the man French socialists believe has the best chance in a generation of winning them control of the Élysée Palace. “My dear friends,” he begins, and the crowd is already his.
At a time when France is gripped by fears about rising unemployment, the cost of living and the continent’s uncertain future, each campaign for this spring’s presidential election has a delicate balance to strike between hope and realism.
In this Hollande has the easier task: the last time his party was in government was 2002, remembered today as economic halcyon days, and his chief rival is one of the least popular presidents in modern French history. The socialists are counting on this being a referendum on the man Hollande calls “the outgoing candidate”.
To cheers of approval, Hollande casts himself as the man to “unite France” after the fractious Sarkozy years cast “old against young, public sector against private sector, new French against older French”.
He is the candidate of cohesion, solidarity, common purpose.
“Our France has been weakened,” he repeats again and again, listing a litany of failures attributed to the incumbent – a loss of productivity and jobs, falling exports, declining influence, widening inequality.
Sarkozy’s announcement of his re-election bid resulted in a steady rise in his poll numbers, but Hollande is widely felt to have regained the initiative this week. An anti-climactic speech by the president combined with some missteps by the campaign have chipped away at his momentum.
Television pictures showed him being whistled and jeered in Bayonne on Thursday, and the right has seemed unsure of how to deal with Hollande’s surprise plan to introduce a 75 per cent tax on incomes over €1 million, which a poll yesterday showed had the support of 61 per cent of voters.
The Hollande campaign is all about making him look, sound and feel presidential. He is carefully cultivating a statesmanlike aura – less jovial and more aloof than the man France has known for decades.
The red backdrop that framed his speeches during the party primary last autumn has been replaced with presidential blue.
Hollande details some of his 60 campaign pledges, including the hiring of 60,000 teachers, higher taxes on the rich, renegotiation of the EU fiscal compact, and a cut in the deficit and “our enemy” public debt.
“People on the left are less interested in charisma,” says theatre student Constance Clause (23) on one of Hollande’s perceived weaknesses.
“The Socialist Party is a real party, whereas on the right it’s less a party than an individual.”
Annie Biesuz, a public nurse, was struck by the candidate’s sincerity. “I can’t wait for him to become president. He doesn’t have that arrogance. He has a sense of humour. He’s a nice man – he smiles, he is gracious.”
Hollande belongs to the Socialist Party’s social democratic camp and, for some people at the rally, his left-wing instincts were not strong enough. “The fact that he only mentioned the word ‘worker’ once is an issue for me,” says student Clément Lebrune.
Another student, Johanna Tixier (22), is tempted by left-winger Jean-Luc Mélenchon, but she is impressed by Hollande. And fear weighs heavily on her mind: fear that a split vote on the left could lead to a repeat of the outcome in 2002, when the National Front candidate qualified for the run-off at the left’s expense. “I think Sarko and Marine [Le Pen] would be worse than [Jacques] Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen,” she adds.