French presidential election: the gloves are off French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the Front Gauche, has pulled no punches in attacking his rivals. Photograph: Collet Guillaume/Sipa/Rex Features With the first round just days away the gloves are off in the French presidential election. After months of nifty footwork and gentle sparring, the 10 candidates are finally getting stuck in. At least one candidate has instructed lawyers, and insults and accusations are being thrown with increasing fury. In the left corner, French socialism's Monsieur Nice Guy, François Hollande, is tipped to win; in the right, Nicolas "Super" Sarkozy, the omnipresident, is trailing, but ever combative. Behind the political heavyweights, the middleweights - far-left revolutionary Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the Front Gauche, and far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen, of the Front National - are slugging it out for third place. Mélenchon, who has vowed to tax earnings over €360,000 (£300,000) at 100% and rails at "Anglo-Saxons" and their "stinking money," has been the most pugilistic. The former socialist described Hollande as being as useful as "the captain of a pedalo in a storm" and has pulled no punches, particularly when referring to Le Pen, who he has described as a "filthy beast spitting hatred," a "bat," a "dark presence" and "half-demented." When she challenged him to his face, he repeated the insult. "Half-demented ... that at least leaves the other half," he said. While Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, called him a voyou (yob) for attacking his daughter, Marine hit back, describing Mélenchon as "a fat bourgeois who plays being a man of the people." Another insult was more subtle: "In front of the cameras Mélenchon will hurl threats and insults, but in reality he's charming, affable, almost a little boy," she said. Le Pen, who wants to pull France out of the "mad and murderous spiral" of European monetary union, has also shown an acid tongue. At the weekend she described Hollande and Sarkozy as "Siamese twins" and described their rallies as "a school for fans" and "puerile." Hollande caused a storm after allegedly insulting Sarkozy when during a lunch with journalists he envisaged his rival's election strategy. He will present himself to the French and say: 'I'm a president who's done nothing for five years, I'm a dirty bloke, but re-elect me because in this difficult period, I'm the only capable one.' He then upset former colleague turned rival Mélenchon, who is also representing the Communist party, by saying: "There are no communists left in France ... or very few." He has, however, studiously avoided mentioning Sarkozy by name, even in jest. "If I sometimes hold back my humour, it's out of pity for the incumbent candidate," Hollande said. Sarkozy has had no such inhibitions, stating outright that a Hollande win would be catastrophic for France. "Hollande pretends to be Thatcher in London and Mitterrand in Paris," he said. Until now, Sarkozy who has a notoriously short fuse, has been kept on a leash by his political advisers. However, his meet-the-voters visits are precarious affairs. All the spin doctors in the world could not stop him snapping at a disgruntled farmer and poking her husband in the chest, or calling a journalist a tosser (which made a change from calling them paedophiles). The Green candidate, Eva Joly, has also belied her gentle, reasonable appearance and found herself in court on Monday after questioning the Le Pen family fortune, part of which was subject to a legacy dispute in the 1970s. It's my duty to remind you who Marine Le Pen is and where she comes from. She says she's a candidate of the people ... but she lives in a chateau," Joly said. One cringeworthy moment was a controversial clip of an Elysée video conference between Sarkozy and his US counterpart, Barack Obama, which led to the former being accused of using his position as head of state to win votes. It was the first time such a diplomatic exchange between the leaders had been broadcast, and critics warned it might backfire on Sarkozy. "We will win, Mr Obama," Sarkozy is heard saying in what the French press described as schoolboy English. You and me together. All-in-all it has been a scratchy campaign; but French politics is a serious business with few laughs. The opinion polls show Hollande and Sarkozy level for the first-round vote on Sunday, but Hollande well ahead for the runoff a fortnight later. One moment of light relief came when rank outsider Nicolas Dupont-Aignan discovered his campaign headquarters was not as soundproof as he might have wished after noisy neighbours engaging in what the French press described as "bedroom sport" interrupted a press conference. "Enough talk, we want actions," continued the candidate, pretending not to notice, as journalists sniggered.