THE received wisdom in Paris is that Jean-Luc Mélenchon's remarkable campaign is bad news for François Hollande. As Mr Mélenchon has surged ahead in the polls, and into third place in the first round, Mr Hollande's numbers have dropped back. But I wonder if this is right. Could Mr Mélenchon's dazzling performance actually be helpful for Mr Hollande?

At first glance, this seems absurd. Mr Mélenchon's rise in the polls, which began in mid-February, has almost exactly mirrored Mr Hollande's decline. The Communists' candidate has jumped from 9% to 15%, while the Socialists' has dropped from 32% to 28%. As a result, Mr Hollande has lost any sense of momentum.

With the clenched fists, the sea of red flags at his rallies and the singing of the "Internationale", the fiery Mr Mélenchon has managed to excite crowds, and stir passions and utopian dreams in a way that only underlines Mr Hollande's rather staid approach. Mr Hollande can do hot-blooded on occasion: his rousing speech at Le Bourget, when he declared war on the “world of finance”, launched him as a plausible presidential candidate. But he is more often perceived as a man of moderation, the “normal” candidate to contrast with the extravagant Nicolas Sarkozy. And this hardly makes for an inspiring campaign.

But could it be that Mr Mélenchon is actually doing the passion job for him? Clémentine Autain, Mr Mélenchon's spokeswoman, said on the radio the other day that: “We will call for a victory over Sarkozy, and we will vote for the left-wing candidate who is in the lead”. His voters are the very ones who might otherwise have abstained at this election. As it is, polling agencies predict a low turnout compared with 2007. By rallying the disillusioned on the left in the first round, and then calling on them to back Mr Hollande in the second, Mr Mélenchon might actually turn out to be an asset for the Socialist candidate.