Elysée Palace beckons for François Hollande in contest with Nicolas Sarkozy At no time was this more humiliating than in the run up to the 2007 presidential election, when his own partner Ségolène Royal, mother of his four children, effectively stabbed him in the back. Ever since graduating from the elite civil service college the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, there had been a tacit agreement between the power couple, who were taken under the first ever Socialist president François Mitterrand's wing, that Mr Hollande would be the one to bid for the ultimate office in France. In the event, Miss Royal, riding what turned out to be an illusory wave of popularity, did not step aside as Mr Hollande had assumed she would. Maybe because he was reportedly already involved with the woman now at his side, journalist Valerie Trierweiler. Even his children took their mother's side as, five years ago, Miss Royal stood - unsuccessfully - against Nicolas Sarkozy, and Mr Hollande was shuffled off to a political wilderness. But each time he has suffered defeats and disappointments, Mr Hollande has bounced back, and done so with a smile. His ability to keep calm and carry on has earned him the nickname "Monsieur Culbuto," the Mr Wobbly Man character in the children's series Noddy, who always rights himself after being pushed over. It is one name among many thrown his way, some less flattering than others: Mr Flanby, after a jelly-like French pudding for his perceived spinelessness; The Interloper, for his ability to insinuate himself into positions of influence; and even the politically incorrect The Chinaman, by enemies who claim he can "kill with a smile." His biographer, Serge Raffy, editor of the Nouvel Observateur magazine describes him as the "Saint Bernard of politics... always ready to offer his flask to the traitors." Mr Raffy writes that Mr Hollande preaches reconciliation: "To those who beg him to play the executioner to give the impression he's a real leader, as the French like, he replies that he is faithful to his word." Until last year, the epithet Mr Also Ran might also have applied. Even though he had reiterated his ambition to be come French president, it was widely accepted that the Socialist Party would select Dominique Strauss-Kahn to run against Mr Sarkozy. But when Mr Strauss-Kahn's political hopes were destroyed last May when he faced charges - since dropped - of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid, Mr Hollande stepped into the breach. The final opinion polls predicted victory for him in today's run-off, by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, but Mr Hollande knows better than to underestimate Sarkozy's ability to pull an unexpected rabbit out of the electoral hat, given the fickle nature of French elections. Over the last week, the gap between them has narrowed from 10 to four percentage points, a sign that there is still no certainty - with many voters only making their minds up this weekend. Even as his supporters were dusting off the bunting, Mr Hollande warned on Friday night they should not "commit the error of believing it's a foregone conclusion." I am sure of nothing... there are so many who are undecided, uncertain, worried that I have to appeal to you to keep mobilising, engaging, to vote, right up until Sunday. His caution is born of bitter experience. The young François Hollande was devastated when his authoritarian father, an ear, nose and throat specialist who had twice stood as a far-Right candidate in local elections first sent his rebellious older brother Philippe away to boarding school. He then uprooted the family from the bucolic Normandy village of Bois-Guillaume, near Rouen, to the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine - throwing away François' favourite Dinky cars and toy soldiers in the move. François knew nobody in Paris, but he was a brilliant student and attended the country's most elite colleges, first the Institute of Political Sciences (Sciences-Po), then ENA. In the holidays, he and friends would travel, often to England where he once spent the night in a Hastings telephone box. Biographer Raffy says the young Mr Hollande was troubled by his short, stocky and bespectacled physical appearance, but made up for it by refining a caustic wit and humour and a good line in self-deprecation. "In love and with the girls, it's like with English, I'm in the mediocre category," Mr Hollande would repeat. After graduating from ENA with distinction, Mr Hollande was set up for a career as a civil servant and, if he wished, in politics. His first job was at the cour de comptes, the state audit office, then as a lecturer at Sciences-Po. In the 1970s, he threw his weight behind the first Socialist president François Mitterrand and had hoped for a junior minister's post, when Mitterrand was elected in 1981. Mr Hollande was disappointed. Later he became an acolyte of Jacques Delors another presidential hopeful until he abandoned France to become head of the European Union. Mr Hollande was again disappointed. After becoming right-hand man to Lionel Jospin, the Socialist prime minister, he was once again overlooked for ministerial jobs and sidelined. When Mr Jospin was knocked out of the first round of the 2002 presidential elections by the far-right's Jean-Marie Le Pen, however, it was Mr Hollande, then secretary general of the Socialist Party, who put the squabbling French left back together. Throughout his career, François Hollande ploughed his furrow behind paternal figures, Mitterrand, Delors, Jospin. Suddenly he was an orphan. He was alone faced with his destiny and seemed disarmed, a little lost, incapable of making the necessary step to propel him into the category of the leader of the tribe," writes Raffy. Then came 2007 and the rise of Ségolène. "As usual, he (Hollande) shrugged and waited for better days," writes Raffy, who says his enemies underestimated Mr Hollande's dogged determination when they dismissed him as the eternal back-room boy. Mr Hollande's response during the many career lows was to return to his roots and spend time in his constituency in the Corrèze, central France. In doing so, he has created an unusually strong popular power base. In his constituency of Tulle even those who do not agree with him talk of him with genuine admiration. Journalist Alain Albinet, of the local newspaper, La Montagne, said: "It's nothing to do with ideology it's about the man, the human. He won over the loyalty of the people by being here, being accessible and defending local interests. For many in Mr Hollande's position, winning power would be pay back time, but this is not his style. In the past he has brought back people who have stabbed him in the back, even when there was a risk they would do so again. He has worked hard to unify the Socialist Party and in any case, is not given to retribution or revenge. He prefers to mollify and neutralise, much to the irritation of colleagues. All this, however, depends on him winning. Yesterday morning Mr Hollande was once again in the weekly market at Tulle, with Miss Trierweiler, shaking hands, meeting the people. Mr Sarkozy was reported to be with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and their six-month-old daughter Giulia. And later on Sunday François Hollande will know if he has finally fulfilled his teenage dream by becoming the 24th president of the French Republic.