The lesson from the last time Marine Le Pen knifed a French prime minister – POLITICO

PARIS — Marine Le Pen is primed to play a major role in toppling French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday — but he will, at least, leave his post untarnished by a futile attempt to strike political trade-offs with the far-right leader.

That’s a lesson Bayrou learned from his predecessor, Michel Barnier. Facing the same challenge of trying to force through a painful round of billions of euros of budgetary belt-tightening, Barnier tried to haggle with Le Pen. It ended in disaster, and he became the Fifth Republic’s shortest-lived prime minister when he departed in December last year.

Bayrou, who still has his eye on a long-shot bid for the presidency, is exiting on his own terms, while Barnier is still smarting from being humiliated by Le Pen.