Le Pen’s questionable art of the deal

In Trump: The Art of the Deal, the 1987 bestseller that made him a household name, the future American president outlines his negotiating methods. Show his strength, surprise even if it means slamming the door, put his adversary’s back against the wall and, above all, putting his name on the deal and taking credit for it matters more than the actual content of the deal.

Has far-right leader Marine Le Pen read the book of a man she has long supported and whose counterpart she dreams of becoming? In recent weeks, she has applied the “art of the deal” to perfection, gradually pushing Prime Minister Michel Barnier to accept most of her demands. But on Monday, December 2, at the end of a negotiation that demonstrated her upper hand over Barnier, the far-right leader put down her pen. She walked away from the agreement that would have made her a second head of government, on the eve of further high-stakes pieces of legislation, including the main budget bill, the immigration law and a possible text on proportional representation.

Her electorate’s wish was to overthrow Barnier’s government, seen as a continuation of President Emmanuel Macron’s. Le Pen and the president of her Rassemblement National (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, have been rallying around this desire in recent weeks, arguing that they would have too much to lose and that the prime minister had failed to offer them what Le Pen so earnestly seeks: respect. In their view, Barnier has never lived up to the promise he made at the start of the legislative session.

The duo at the head of the RN made their decision over lunch on Monday, December 2, preserving their image as an “anti-system” party and rejecting a double opportunity – that of claiming victories for their electorate and reinforcing the economic elites’ new opinion of them. They announced that they would file a motion of no-confidence following the prime minister’s use of Article 49.3 (which allows a bill to be passed without a vote) on Monday afternoon to push through the social security budget bill, and that they would join the left in voting for the motion put forward by its Nouveau Front Populaire coalition.

Winning the seniors’ vote

The “deal” would, however, have bore Le Pen’s name: Barnier’s latest backtracking, on the electricity tax hike and medication reimbursements, are attributed to her. In the case of medication reimbursements, Barnier wrote at noon on Monday, in a press release published on the official prime minister’s office stationary, mentioning his telephone discussion with Le Pen. In so doing, he also complied with the explicit demand made by the far-right leader. This final outstretched hand granted the request Le Pen expressed in the press on Sunday. In La Tribune Sundayshe demanded to cancel a measure to freeze state pensions below inflation levels or one on the non-reimbursement of medicines.