LONDON (AP) – King Charles III’s state visit to France has been postponed indefinitely amid widespread protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, which have prevented the new monarch from making his international debut.
Charles and his wife Camilla will travel on to Germany on Wednesday in what was expected to be the second leg of his first foreign trip since taking the throne in September.
The initial six-day visit to France and Germany, the European Union’s two largest countries, was designed to highlight efforts to repair relations between Britain and its neighbors after six years of Brexit disputes.
But the prospect of Charles facing protesters and piles of rubbish on the streets of Paris has forced officials in France and Britain to rethink their plans.
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“The state visit of the King and Queen Consort to France has been postponed,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said in a statement. “This decision was taken with the agreement of all parties, after the French president asked the British government to postpone the visit.”
Buckingham Palace said she would be found at another time.
“Their Majesties look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as the dates are found,” the palace said in a statement.
French unions called a day of nationwide protests and strikes on Tuesday to protest Macron’s proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. This is the day the king was due to travel to the western city of Bordeaux with much ceremony and high security, and the protests would complicate his journey.
Charles and Camilla will begin their first state visit to Germany on Wednesday, where they will be greeted with military honors by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
The British king is expected to address the Bundestag on Thursday, meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and hold talks with refugees and the Ukrainian military.
He will travel to Hamburg on Friday, where he will visit the Kindertransport memorial for Jewish children who fled Germany to Britain during the Third Reich and attend a green energy event before returning to Britain in the evening.
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