King trip burned by banquet fears
Sunday Express|March 26, 2023
Fears overreaction to a sumptuous Versailles banquet were a key reason for cancelling King Charles’s state visit to France, insiders say.
Marco Giannangeli
King trip burned by banquet fears

“The comparison to Louis XVI’s court while citizens protested at the cost-of-living crisis was simply too striking,” said one source involved in the preparation of the postponed trip.

But it was King Charles’s penchant for spontaneously mingling with crowds that provided the final death knell.

The three-day visit with Queen Camilla was to be His Majesty’s first trip abroad since becoming King.

Yesterday, the violence was showing little signs of quelling, with petrol bombs and mortars being used against officers.

Thousands ran amok in SainteSoline, near Poitiers, where protesters used Molotov cocktails to set police vans alight.

And more than a million people took to the streets on Thursday during the biggest demonstrations since French President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a Bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote in the National Assembly.

This story is from the March 26, 2023 edition of Sunday Express.

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This story is from the March 26, 2023 edition of Sunday Express.

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