As he explained why his party would not vote to topple the new French government, Tuesday, October 8, far-right MP Guillaume Bigot made a memorable brag: "We [are not voting for the motion of no-confidence] it because it's pointless at this stage. A single tweet from Marine Le Pen is enough to sway the prime minister's position! (...) All it took was a simple reprimand for the head of government to make it clear – thank you for intervening, Mr. Prime Minister – to his finance minister that his door should remain open to all."

Bigot was referring to Prime Minister Michel Barnier's October 4 about-face on freezing pensions and, above all, to a September 24 phone call Barnier made to Le Pen to disavow public remarks made by Finance Minister Antoine Armand. On that day, Armand, a 33-year-old Macron loyalist who had just been appointed to government, said he was ready to collaborate with all parties, "as long as they are part of the republican arc." However, Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN), he said, does not belong to the "republican arc," speaking on the radio station France Inter.

An hour and a half later, Le Pen and Barnier sat together for the first time, side by side in the office of the Assemblée's president, where the first conference of presidents of the new legislature was taking place. The prime minister, invited to speak to the presidents of the 11 groups in the Assemblée, insisted that his door was open to them, that he would respect all groups, and that he would refuse any sectarianism, as he had already said publicly. To Le Pen, the RN group president, who mentioned Armand's remarks, Barnier replied that, for his part, he "talks with everyone."

Now certain that Armand had spoken out of line, Le Pen rushed to the cameras after the meeting to explain that the minister had taken liberties. "When I heard Mr. Armand this morning, who explains that his door would always be closed to RN lawmakers, at a time when we've just got the budget coming up, I think the prime minister needs to go and explain to all of his ministers what his government's philosophy is, because it would seem that some haven't yet fully understood," she attacked.

Her request for clarification was promptly granted. As Le Pen was chairing a late-morning meeting of the RN and its allies, one of her close assistants' phones vibrated: The prime minister was trying to reach her. "We'll wait a moment," she signaled to her aide.

When she finally called him back, Barnier set the record straight: "I just wanted to tell you that you will be welcomed by the finance minister," he told the RN leader. "The line I have set, that of respect and dialogue with all the political forces represented in Parliament, has not changed, it concerns all my ministers."

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