Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

PROTESTS

‘Sorry Charles!’ French unions mark king’s absence with banner

French unions on Thursday unfurled a giant banner opposite English shores to goad Britain's King Charles III after his first foreign state visit to France was cancelled.

Published: 30 March 2023 16:18 CEST

'Sorry Charles!' French unions mark king's absence with banner

French union members unfurl banners including one reading "Sorry Charles, see you later" after a trip by Britain's King Charles III to France was postponed in the wake of violent protests over a pensions reform (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)

“Sorry Charles, see you later,” said the banner unfurled by union activists a week after President Emmanuel Macron postponed at the last minute the planned visit by Charles.

Macron said that nationwide union-led protests and strikes against contentious pension reforms prevented France from hosting Charles in the manner it had hoped.

With the trip postponed, it fell to Germany to host Charles for his first foreign trip as monarch, where he was received with pomp on Wednesday and Thursday.

Around 100 French union members unfurled the banner on Cap Blanc Nez, a point outside the northern city of Calais that is one of the closest places in France to England.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: Why is there so much anger in France about pension reform?

They battled clifftop winds but succeeded in unfurling the banner so it could be easily seen from the coast.

The postponement of the visit meant that Charles had to forgo plans for a state banquet at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris and a trip to the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

Macron has said the visit could go ahead in the early summer, but it remains unclear if Charles will find space in his schedule.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Dozens detained at Paris pro-Palestinian university protest

Those arrested in the police operation on Tuesday night were being held for a variety of public order offences, said the statement.

They include wilful damage, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority, intrusion into an education establishment and holding a meeting designed to disrupt order. Some are also being held for participation in a group with a view to preparing violence or damage to property.

They can be held for an initial 24 hours, which can then be extended another 24 hours.

The day before police moved in, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said there would never be a right to disrupt France’s universities with such protests.

Police acted after about 100 students had been occupying a lecture theatre for two hours in “solidarity” with the people of Gaza, an AFP journalist on site noted.

Tuesday night’s police operation at the Sorbonne – and at another university on Paris’s Left Bank, Science Po university – followed interventions to end similar protests at the end of April.

Students at universities in several European countries have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s punishing assault on Gaza.

Police have also intervened to clear campuses in the United States, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7th attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized on October 7th, out of the 253 taken, are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run besieged Palestinian territory.

Url copied to clipboard!