Hollande supporters seek spirit of "81 Centre of attention - but François Hollande is struggling to galvanise even his most ardent supporters "This is nothing like François Mitterrand in 1981," is how one Socialist in the crowd puts it. The source of his disappointment is the rather muted response to the arrival of François Hollande in the square of Albi, a pretty town near Toulouse in southwest France and a traditional party stronghold. Mr Hollande, who is trying to become the only other Socialist to lead France since the creation of the fifth republic, had chosen the location carefully because of its symbolic connection to Mr Mitterrand's victory in 1981. After Albi, he headed on Monday night to nearby Carmaux, a place forever connected with Jean Jaurès, a founding father of the French socialist movement, and where Mr Mitterrand was greeted by euphoric crowds during his first campaign. But even here, among the party's most loyal supporters, Mr Hollande - who leads the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, in opinion polls just five days from the first round of voting - generates ambivalence more than passion. Frank, a 55-year-old mechanic who has always been "rather of the left," is still undecided about backing Mr Hollande. He seems like a decent person and he's intelligent but he lacks real experience and lots of people worry that he lacks character too. It is a fairly common view, even among party supporters, although most also insist that he offers a far better alternative to Mr Sarkozy, his unpopular rival who is struggling with his own campaign despite a lurch towards rightwing rhetoric and a seemingly endless flow of new policy announcements. The latest, echoing the socialists" call for the European Central Bank to support growth, was seized on by Mr Hollande's team as a sign that Mr Sarkozy is starting to panic. However, despite a growing sense of confidence in the Hollande camp, including revelations at the weekend that government posts were already being divvied up, there is a worry that the socialist candidate will lack legitimacy if his success can only be attributed to the "anyone but Sarko" vote. He has also lost considerable ground to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the charismatic candidate for the Left party, an alliance that includes the communists. While Mr Hollande is confident that the extreme left would switch support to him in the decisive second round, he may have to promise radical policies as a result and alienate more moderate centrist voters. Speaking to a mass rally of thousands of supporters in Paris on Sunday, Mr Hollande stressed that he was the only candidate of the left with a genuine chance of taking power, warning of the damage "of a vote cast for indignation." At Sunday's rally too, beyond the flag-waving faithful, there were a number of people only voting socialist by instinct or who were there to see if Mr Hollande could win them over. Anne-Marie, a 62-year-old retired schoolteacher, gave an eloquent description of the problems facing Mr Hollande as he looks to convince people he was, in his words, "not simply the rejection" of Mr Sarkozy. "I'll vote socialist because I always do, but there is a real lack of interest in the election," she said. I remember last time people were discussing it on buses and everywhere else, but this time it's different. Everybody knows that there are painful choices to come - the country's sense of self-confidence is disappearing - but Hollande can't really talk about that. And young people in particular are drawn to Mélenchon because what he says is easy to understand. I think it would be completely mad to do what he suggests though. Anne-Marie's 27-year-old daughter, unemployed after a series of short-term jobs that are increasingly prevalent in France as employers avoid longer contracts, said she will probably vote Socialist too, but "all of my friends are voting Mélenchon." Another worry for Mr Hollande as he seeks to secure victory over the next three weeks are suggestions that the abstention rate could be close to 30 per cent, far higher than in 2007 when Mr Sarkozy entered power. Mr Hollande blames this on the "fatalism, the resignation and sense of discouragement that feeds abstention," blaming the current president. But back in Albi, some say the sense of hopelessness transcends party politics, helping to explain Mr Mélenchon's appeal. "There's no choice, we do need to change from Sarkozy," says 24-year-old Christian, drinking in a local brasserie, before his older friend interjects: "But we've never really seen it, this change they keep promising."