After several days of intense negotiations between the French and British authorities, the visit of King Charles III to Paris, scheduled for the end of March, was cancelled by the French presidency, given the intensity of the social unrest that has been shaking France for several days.
Charles III’s trip was scheduled to take place from the 26th to the 29th of March. This was a highly symbolic trip, since the new King of England had chosen France—which he, like his mother the late Queen Elizabeth, is particularly fond of—for his first state visit abroad.
The protocol services of both countries worked hard over the last few days to put together a programme for the visit that was under close scrutiny, given the almost revolutionary atmosphere in France and, more particularly, in Paris. Several elements of the programme were therefore on hold.
A large gala dinner was to be organised at the Château de Versailles in the Galerie des Glaces, with two hundred hand-picked guests, but there were doubts as to whether it would be possible to drive safely from Paris to Versailles, at a time when road blockades were increasing.
The visit to the Mobilier National, the traditional repository of the state’s collections of French decorative arts and furniture, proposed to the King of England, was also compromised. The institution’s employees are on strike and have no intention of changing their programme to accommodate the King of England. A statement by the union CGT Culture was issued that said:
We are fully aware that at the end of the week the King of England will be welcomed in France and that our services will be requested. We say: this has nothing to do with protocol, it will be without us! We stand in solidarity with the British workers, especially in the cultural sector (British Museum, Wallace collection …), who have been on strike for weeks for a pay rise.
Beyond the organisational difficulties, the question of the king’s reception also arose in terms of image. The streets of Paris have been in chaos for several days. Heaps of rubbish have been piling up at all the crossroads because of the garbage collectors’ strike, which has lasted for several days, causing serious levels of visual and olfactory pollution, and public hygiene. It is difficult for Paris, in these conditions, to show a welcoming face to a visiting foreign head of state.
“Given the announcement of a new national day of action against pension reform on Tuesday, 28 March in France, the visit of King Charles III, initially scheduled for 26 to 29 March in our country, will be postponed,” the Élysée finally announced late Friday morning.
The French presidency specified that this cancellation was made jointly by the French and British governments. The new date of the trip is unknown for the moment.
