Will Christine Lagarde crush Marine Le Pen?

The National Rally is comfortably leading in the polls. The charismatic Jordan Bardella is set to become the next Prime Minister. And Marine Le Pen looks to be heading for power in France. When she gets there, however, she faces a potentially far more lethal opponent than the bruised and increasingly powerless President Emmanuel Macron. The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde. In reality, the next big issue in Eurozone politics will be whether Lagarde crushes Le Pen – and whether that risks compromising the independence of the Bank for good. 

If Le Pen’s National Rally takes power early next month, as seems increasingly likely, the new government will be riding into a financial storm. French equities have slumped, and the country’s bond yields have spiked, as the markets look nervously at the lavish spending promises of the National Rally.