France’s outgoing prime minister, Michel Barnier, learned a hard lesson his successor should also know. There is no placating Marine Le Pen.

On Monday last week, he called the leader of far-right National Rally at 8:30 a.m. in an eleventh-hour bid to salvage his budget bill and his government and pretty much offered all she wanted. They came to an agreement and she went for lunch with her right-hand man Jordan Bardella.

Then she asked for more.