A lavish banquet planned for King Charles at the Palace of Versailles as the ‘highlight’ of his State Visit to France is set to be moved because of threats of violence, it has emerged tonight.
An aide to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday told the BFM news channel, the most popular in France, that widespread rioting made the engagement too risky.
Protesters have been fighting battles with police for the past week following Mr Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.
The presidential source said: ‘The dinner between Charles III and Emmanuel Macron, planned for Monday, may not be held at Versailles, as initially planned.’
Organisers ‘plan to hold it somewhere else,’ with the Elysée Palace in central Paris a likely replacement.
The event at Versailles was meant to be the glittering highlight of the State Visit – Charles’s first as monarch.
A lavish banquet planned for King Charles at the Palace of Versailles as the ‘highlight’ of his State Visit to France is set to be moved because of threats of violence, an aide of President Emmanuel Macron (pictured) on Wednesday told the BFM news channel
The event at Versailles was meant to be the glittering highlight of the State Visit – Charles’s first as monarch (The King is pictured in September 2022). Organisers ‘plan to hold it somewhere else,’ with the Elysée Palace in central Paris a likely replacement
The King and Camilla, the Queen Consort were set to arrive at the ancient palace (pictured) on Monday evening, so as to join 200 handpicked guests being hosted by Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron
The King and Camilla, the Queen Consort were set to arrive at the ancient palace on Monday evening, so as to join 200 handpicked guests being hosted by Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron.
A concert was to be held in the Royal Chapel, and then dinner would have been served on Duplessis porcelain plates made during the reign of Louis XV.
But demonstrators including opposition politicians have accused Mr Macron of being completely out of touch with the lives of ordinary people.
Mr Macron appeared on live TV on Wednesday afternoon to break his silence about raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.
The move – which he made last Thursday – has provoked fury, with opponents saying his decision to invite Charles III to a banquet at the Palace of Versailles next week shows how out of touch he was.
‘It’s amazing’ said MP Sandrine Rousseau. ‘We are going to have Emmanuel Macron, the Republican monarch meeting Charles III while people in the street are demonstrating.
‘Can this really be happening? This is an incredible denial of democracy. ‘Something is happening in this country – is the priority really to receive Charles III at Versailles?’
Versailles – west of Paris – is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, France’s last proper king and queen, lived before being guillotined at the height of the 1789 Revolution.
The palace, which was built by the Sun King, Louis XIV, still represents the fabulous wealth and privilege of France’s pre-revolutionary Royals.
Trade unionists and other protesters have already pledged to disrupt all events attended by the British Monarch, and Versailles would have been Number 1 target.
Beyond riots, anti-Macron protests in France have included some 10,000 tonnes of rubbish building up on the streets of Paris after binmen withdrew their labour.
A Buckingham Palace source said the situation in France ‘was being monitored,’ but there were no immediate plans to cancel the trip, which starts on Sunday.
Mr Macron did not address the King’s visit when he appeared on TF1 on Thursday lunchtime, leaving it to aides to say it would go ahead as planned.
Protesters have been fighting battles with police for the past week following Mr Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote (pictured, Unionists standing in front of a fire during a blocade of Marseille’s port on March 22)
Pictured: Protestors put an effigy of President Emmanuel Macron on a railway track during a demonstration on March 22)
Macron’s move – which he made last Thursday – has provoked fury, with opponents saying his decision to invite Charles III (pictured with Camilla, Queen Consort on Christmas Day last year) to a banquet at the Palace of Versailles next week shows how out of touch he was
King Charles is pictured on a previous visit to the French capital in November 1988 when he was the Prince of Wales
Instead, Mr Macron accused French rioters of acting like Donald Trump supporters who attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. in January 2021.
‘We cannot accept either the factious or the factions,’ said Mr Macron. ‘We will not tolerate violence’.
Attempting to justify a rise in the pension age, Mr Macron said: ‘When I entered working life there were 10 million retirees, today there are 17 million. In the 2030s, there will be 20 million.’
‘We must invest in our public services, our school, our health. We cannot put all the money into pensions.’
Mr Macron said France’s current system of pouring billions into cushy retirement plans created ‘deficit that your children will have to pay for.’
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