FRANÇOIS HOLLANDE was on remarkably good form this afternoon at a press conference in Paris. He has made such an effort recently to appear solemn and presidential that it is almost a surprise to find him back to cracking jokes.



The main subject of his good humour, besides the continuing favourable second-round opinion polls, was a comment made this morning by Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank. Mr Draghi suggested that he would be in favour of a “growth pact”. The news has been all over the French media today. For Mr Hollande, a week-and-a-half before the run-off on May 6th, this was too good to be true. And it probably is.



Mr Hollande has been campaigning for months on the idea that, if elected, he will “renegotiate” the German-backed fiscal pact for the euro, which emphasises fiscal austerity. He says his first trip as president will be to Berlin, where he will tell Angela Merkel not only that he wants more emphasis on growth, but that he will block ratification of the (signed) treaty if he doesn't get his way.



This afternoon, Mr Hollande laid his policy out more clearly. He was still in favour of budgetary discipline, he said. But this needed to be balanced with growth-supporting measures. These could be dealt with in a recast treaty—or as part of a new growth pact to “complement” the fiscal one.



He has a four-point plan: to create European “project bonds” to finance growth-stimulating infrastructure and energy projects; to reinforce investment by the European Investment Bank; to introduce a financial-transaction tax among willing European countries; and to use structural funds more efficiently.



Until now Mr Hollande has sounded like a voice in the wilderness. Nicolas Sarkozy's people have mocked what they see as his grossly inflated sense of his own potential bargaining power. “It's completely out of the question to renegotiate the treaty,” one of the Sarkozy team told me a few weeks ago. “He's getting everybody's backs up with this idea.”



Take Mr Draghi's comments, however, combine them with growing voices within Europe for less austerity and more growth (see Spain and Italy) and throw in similar views in the United States and at the IMF, and suddenly Mr Hollande no longer looks like an outlier but like a leader who has anticipated the changing mood. No wonder he was looking so chuffed today.



The catch is this: when Mr Hollande talks about growth-supporting measures, does he mean the same thing as everybody else? His plans are not to adapt the rate of fiscal tightening to economic conditions, or to balance structural reform with a boost to demand. They are mainly to borrow and spend more at a European level. And that is presumably not what leaders like Mario Monti or Mr Draghi have in mind.