International

King Charles’s France Visit Postponed After Pension Reform Protests

Published

2 years ago

Mar 24, 2023.

Haneefah

The trip to Paris and Bordeaux were due to begin on Sunday
The state visit would be rescheduled as soon as possible

France has been facing country wide protests for weeks

Eko Hot Blog reports that King Charles III’s state visit to France has been postponed, after a request by President Emmanuel Macron, Downing Street says.

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France’s Elysée Palace said the decision was taken due to a 10th day of pension protests planned on Tuesday.

The trip to Paris and Bordeaux had been due to begin on Sunday, but France saw some of the worst violence on Thursday since demonstrations began in January.

Buckingham Palace said the delay was due to the “situation in France”.

In a statement, it said: “Their Majesties greatly look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found.”

The UK government added the decision had been “taken with the consent of all parties, after the President of France asked the British Government to postpone the visit”.

President Emmanuel Macron spoke to the King on Friday morning, the Elysée Palace said, adding the state visit would be rescheduled as soon as possible, “so that his majesty will be welcomed in conditions which correspond our friendly relationship”.

Several French cities saw violence on the sidelines of Thursday’s largely peaceful protests that attracted more than a million people.

The entrance to the town hall in Bordeaux was set alight. In the capital, tear gas was fired and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said 903 fires were lit, in a city where refuse has been left uncollected since 6 March.

For much of Friday morning, French officials had sought to reassure the public that the state visit, from 26 to 29 March, would take place and that security was in place.

The King and Camilla were due to ride along the Champs-Elysées in the heart of Paris and have a banquet at Versailles with President Macron. The Queen Consort was due to open an art exhibition at the one of main Paris attractions, the Musée d’Orsay. They were then expected to head to Bordeaux.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said there were “no known threats” and Bordeaux Mayor Pierre Hurmic said the trip to his city had been adapted so it “can go ahead under the best security, so as not to expose the King to the slightest difficulty”.

But a TV interview that President Macron gave on the eve of Thursday’s national action appeared to galvanise protesters when he described the government’s reforms as an economic necessity, saying he was prepared to accept the resulting unpopularity.

His government decided on Monday to force through the reforms, which raise the pension age from 62 to 64 and extend contributions by workers to 43 years. As the president and prime minister realised they would struggle to pass the law in the National Assembly, they resorted to a constitutional power to bypass a vote.

“I listened to Macron yesterday and it was as if someone was spitting in our face,” said Adèle, a 19-year-old law student in Nanterre. “For this pension reform, there is another way and if he doesn’t do that, it’s because he’s not listening to the people.

There’s a clear lack of democracy,” she told the BBC.

The protests in France made the trip impossible, not just the security implications but the optics. It could have been potentially embarrassing for both the King and the president if protests had taken place in view of the royal entourage.