Macron ‘humiliated’ over King Charles visit as France braces for fresh violence
Emmanuel Macron has been blamed for the “humiliation” of postponing King Charles III’s state visit during violent pension protests.
Even some of the French president’s close allies fret that he is cutting an increasingly lonely figure in the ivory tower that is the Elysée Palace.
One opposition leader accused him of deliberately seeking to foment an ambience of “civil war” to sway public opinion in his favour.
Summing up the impact of King Charles III’s trip being pulled at the last minute, Le Figaro’s front page read: “Charles III: at the heart of the crisis, an avowal of powerlessness”. Its editorial branded the postponement a “humiliation”, saying France’s “Republican monarch” caved in to a bunch of “half-woke half-Bolivarian revolutionaries” who “dream of a remake of 1789”.
By cancelling the trip, the president has for the first time acknowledged that the country is dancing on a volcano,” it went on.
“The Republican monarch is more alone than ever.”
Le Monde cited an Elysée source as saying the president had little choice given the almost certain disruption to King Charles’ trip to Paris, Versailles and Bordeaux.
”A state visit between our two countries cannot be mezzo voce, especially after the Boris Johnson period. It must be pleasant and festive for the King of England and Head of the Commonwealth,” said the source.
Instead, it ended in “diplomatic disaster”, opined Le Figaro. Worst of all, Paris – reduced to an open-air rubbish pit due to a collectors’ strike – would now have to play second fiddle to Berlin, where the King will be welcomed with open arms. The move was a “terrible disappointment for a ramshackle nation wondering what state it will be in to host the Olympics next year”, it wrote.
Amid fears of spiralling violence, even staunch allies are starting to wonder whether Mr Macron is increasingly out of touch, exchanging with only a very small inner circle and deciding everything alone.
“Once cannot remain blind, one cannot remain deaf to this protest. We must offer responses,” said Guillaume Gouffier Valente, an MP from Mr Macron’s Renaissance group.
“The software is broken. It needs to be changed,” said Ludovic Mendes, another Renaissance MP. “People need to talk, to be heard, to be taken into consideration. We need to put the human touch back into proceedings,” he told Le Monde.
