French election race already looks messy

With still more than two months to go until the first round of France's presidential election, the contest is already looking messy. A financial scandal, online gossip about one candidate's sexual orientation and accusations of interference in the electoral process by a foreign power have enlivened the race to replace outgoing socialist President Francois Hollande.

Among more than half a dozen hopefuls, attention is focused on three - right-of-center former prime minister Francois Fillon, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far right-winger Marine Le Pen.

In the rest of Europe and other Western capitals, mainstream politicians are nervously watching to see if the National Front's Le Pen will win this time around. In 2002, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen made it to a second round runoff against Jacques Chirac, in which left-wing and conservative voters joined forces to deny him victory.