Add Category
King Charles III has cancelled his plans to visit France next week as more than 1 million people demonstrated across the country against President Emmanuel Macron's decision to raise the pension age.
Key points:
- On Thursday, the protests in Paris were the largest seen in the capital since the pension demonstrations began
- Polls say most French oppose Emmanuel Macron's pension bill
- The wooden door of the Bordeaux City Hall was set on fire and violence erupted in other French cities
The postponement — at President Emmanuel Macron's request — will be a major embarrassment to the French leader, who had hoped the monarch's visit would mark a symbolic step in the two countries' efforts to turn a page after years of poor relations over Britain's exit from the European Union.
King Charles had been due to travel to France on Sunday for three days — in what would have been his first state visit since he succeeded his mother Queen Elizabeth as British monarch in September — before moving on to Germany.
That itinerary had been seen as a win for Mr Macron, who has sought to position himself as Europe's de facto leader.
King Charles' trip would have included a lavish banquet at the Palace of Versailles.
"You can see the situation linked to the protests," Mr Macron told a news conference during a visit to Brussels.
He added that "it would not have been serious" to host the state visit after unions announced a nationwide day of strikes and protests for Tuesday.
"Common sense and friendship pushed us to propose to postpone (the visit)."
A British government spokesperson said the decision was "taken with the consent of all parties" after Mr Macron asked the British government to postpone the visit.
The last-minute scrapping of the visit will pile further pressure on Mr Macron to find a way out of a crisis over his plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64, which has seen some of France's worst unrest since the "Yellow Vest" rebellion of 2018-2019.
The Elysee Palace said it hoped the visit would be rescheduled in the coming months.
"There were calls on social networks to disrupt the king's visit, to take action, so we didn't want to take any risks," a French source close to the matter said.
A Buckingham Palace source said Charles' visit to Germany will go ahead as planned.
The king and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, looked forward to rescheduling the visit to France "as soon as dates can be found", a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.
Thousands march in Paris
France's Interior Ministry said the march in Paris — marred by violence, as were numerous marches elsewhere — drew 119,000 people, which was a record for the capital during the pension demonstrations.
Polls say most French oppose President Emmanuel Macron's bill — to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 — which, he says, is necessary to keep the system afloat.
The heavy wooden door of the elegant Bordeaux City Hall was set on fire and quickly destroyed on Thursday evening by members of an unauthorised demonstration, the Sud Ouest newspaper said.
Nationwide, more than 1 million people joined protest marches held in cities and towns around the country on Thursday, the ministry said.
On Thursday night, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin — who was visiting police headquarters as fires still burned in some Paris neighbourhoods — had given an assurance that security posed "no problem" and that the King would be "welcomed and welcomed well".
He said there was "enormous degrading" of public buildings and commerce on Thursday, "far more important than in preceding demonstrations."
"There are troublemakers, often extreme left, who want to take down the state and kill police and, ultimately, take over the institutions," the minister said.
Unions call for nationwide strikes
The demonstrations were held a day after Mr Macron further angered his critics by standing strong on the retirement bill that his government forced through parliament without a vote.
"While the [president] tries to turn the page, this social and union movement … confirms the determination of the world of workers and youth to obtain the withdrawal of the reform," the eight unions organising protests said in a statement.
It called for localised action this weekend and new, nationwide strikes and protests on Tuesday.
Strikes up-ended travel as protesters blockaded train stations, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, refineries and ports.
In Paris, street battles between police and black-clad, masked groups — who attacked at least two fast food restaurants, a supermarket and a bank — reflected intensifying violence and drew attention away from the tens of thousands of peaceful marchers.
Police — pelted by Molotov cocktails, objects and fireworks — charged multiple times and used tear gas to disperse rioters.
A haze of tear gas fumes covered part of the Place de l'Opera, where demonstrators converged at the march's end.
Mr Darmanin said radicals numbered some 1,500.
Violence marred other marches, notably in the western cities of Nantes, Rennes and Lorient — where an administrative building was attacked and the courtyard of the police station was set on fire and its windows broken — and in Lyon, in the south-east.
Thursday's nationwide protests were the ninth union-organised demonstrations since January, when opponents still hoped that parliament would reject Mr Macron's measure to raise the retirement age.
However, the government forced it through using a special constitutional measure.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr Macron refused to budge from his position that a new law is necessary to keep retirement coffers funded.
Opponents proposed other solutions, including higher taxes on the wealthy or companies, which Mr Macron says would hurt the economy.
He insisted the government's bill to raise the retirement age must be implemented by the end of the year.
The Constitutional Council must now approve the measure.
"We are trying to say before the law is enacted … that we have to find a way out and we continue to say that the way out is the withdrawal of the law," the chief of the moderate CFDT trade union, Laurent Berger, told The Associated Press.
High-speed and regional trains, the Paris metro and public transportation systems in other major cities were disrupted.
About 30 per cent of flights at Paris' Orly Airport were cancelled.
The Eiffel Tower and the Versailles Palace — where King Charles had been due to dine with Mr Macron — were closed on Thursday due to the strikes.
Violence, a recurring issue at protests, has intensified in recent days.
Mr Darmanin said that 12,000 security forces were in the French streets on Thursday, with 5,000 in Paris,
The Education Ministry said in a statement that about 24 per cent of teachers had walked off the job in primary and middle schools on Thursday, and 15 per cent from high schools.
At Paris' Gare de Lyon train station, several hundred strikers walked on railway tracks to prevent trains from moving, brandishing flares and chanting "and we will go, and we will go until withdrawal" and "Macron, go away."
"This year, perhaps, maybe our holidays won't be so great," said Maxime Monin, 46, who stressed that employees like himself, who work in public transport, are not paid on strike days.
"But I think it's worth the sacrifice."
In the northern suburbs of Paris, several dozen union members blocked a bus depot in Pantin, preventing about 200 vehicles from leaving during rush hour.
Nadia Belhoum, a 48-year-old bus driver participating in the action, criticised Mr Macron's decision to force the bill bringing higher retirement ages through.
"The president of the Republic … is not a king, and he should listen to his people," she said.
AP/Reuters