King Charles' ill-fated first state visit: France in turmoil, on to Berlin

Charles III was expected in France on Sunday March 26 for his very first state visit as king. But the French government had to cancel that visit because of the violence in Paris and other cities.

"Given the announcement of a new national day of action against pension reform on Tuesday March 28," the French authorities declared, "the visit of King Charles III, initially scheduled for March 26 to 29 in our country, will be postponed."

French President Emmanuel Macron: commented: "I think that we would not be serious and we would lack some common sense to propose to His Majesty the King and the Queen Consort to come for a state visit amid the protests."

The French TV channel LCI consulted an intelligence note which indicated a "high level of threat" represented by the visit of King Charles III to France. According to this document, "the protest movements intend to use this media exposure to blockages" in Paris, Versailles, and Bordeaux.

For the time being, no postponement date has been announced, but the French government specifies that "this state visit will be rescheduled as soon as possible."

For his very first State visit outside the borders of the United Kingdom, King Charles III had chosen to go to France. The British sovereign, who will be crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey, was to travel to Paris and then to Gironde, the region of Bordeaux in the south of France, from March 26 to 29.

He had gotten an invitation from Emmanuel Macron during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. The Élysée Palace had stated that the visit of the new King of England "constitutes an honor done to France and illustrates the depth of the historical ties which unite our two countries."

This first state visit of the British sovereign "also symbolizes the relationship of friendship and trust between the President of the Republic and His Majesty the King, who have in the past worked closely together for the protection of biodiversity and the fight against global warming," the French government added.

Charles III's stay was to be his 35th to France and his first as king. His previous visit dated back to 2019, when he attended, as Prince of Wales, a mass organized at Bayeux Cathedral to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

During this visit to France, King Charles III was to be accompanied by his wife, Queen Consort Camilla Parker-Bowles.

The purpose of this visit was to have "an opportunity to look to the future and show the many ways our countries are working in partnership, whether to fight climate change, respond to the conflict in Ukraine, seize trade opportunities and investment, or share the best of our arts and culture."

The King and Queen Consort were to arrive in Paris and attend a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe on Monday, March 27. Accompanied by Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron, they were to lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then descend the Champs-Élysées to the Élysée Palace.

With the current situation in Paris, leading to scenes like this one, such a ceremony would obviously be a risky undertaking.

At the Élysée, the English sovereign was supposed to meet with the French president. Topics such as the war in Ukraine and the climate emergency are said to have been scheduled for this private conversation.

In the afternoon, the king was supposed to go to the Senate to give a speech before the French parliamentarians. He would probably have made remarks about the war in Ukraine, sustainable development, and Franco-British relations. Now, these important conversations and speeches will have to wait until a later date.

While Charles was speaking to Parliament, Queen Consort Camilla Parker-Bowles and the French President's wife, Brigitte Macron, were supposed to go to the Musée d'Orsay to inaugurate a new exhibition devoted to the artists Manet and Degas.

The royal couple was then invited on Monday evening to a state banquet at the Palace of Versailles. This dinner, organized "in honor of the sovereign and the queen consort," as the Élysée specifies, would have been chaired by Emmanuel Macron.

It's not a great time to have a fancy dinner in the luxurious Versailles palace while Parisian citizens are demonstrating the increase of the pension age. In fact, the protesters are not shy about comparing their anger to that of the revolutionaries who executed King Louis XVI in 1793. "We beheaded Louis XVI, we can do it again," they have been heard chanting.

The cart in this photo says: "Shut down Macron, it's not Versailles here."

Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla were also supposed to go to Bordeaux in the south, accompanied by a French minister. According to Buckingham Palace, it's a city "where a large number of British residents live and a destination for hundreds of thousands of British tourists."

In Bordeaux, the king and queen consort were supposed to inaugurate the new consulate of Great Britain. Buckingham Palace specified that they were to meet "members of the local French and British communities" there.

It was then scheduled for the British monarch to visit a site that was affected by forest fires in the summer of 2022, around Bordeaux. The royal couple was to meet rescue workers and local associations.

His Majesty would have continued his tour in the region of Gironde with a visit to an organic vineyard. It is the first vineyard "to adopt a sustainable approach to wine production, in particular by producing its own solar energy and by capturing and converting the carbon dioxide it produces," the British palace explained in its press release.

The royal couple was then to return to Paris and continue their state trip to Germany on the 29th of March. Now that France is in turmoil, they have changed their plans and are going directly to Berlin instead. The German visit also includes Hamburg.