King and Queen Consort visit Germany after French trip cancelled over mass protests
The King and Queen Consort are expected to touchdown in Germany after the couple’s visit to France was postponed due to violent protests in the country.
Charles and Camilla were due to begin the first state visit of the King’s reign last Sunday but the trip was shelved last-minute after a night of angry demonstrations across France, that led to hundreds of arrests and police being injured.
President Emmanuel Macron asked the British government to postpone the four-day French trip and said it was likely to be rescheduled for the beginning of summer.
Charles and Camilla were due to travel from France to Germany for a state visit from Wednesday to Friday, and the visit to Berlin will go ahead as planned.
The pair will be met by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the historic Brandenburg Gate.
The King is scheduled to give a speech to the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, on Thursday.
He will also meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, talk to Ukrainian refugees and meet with British and Germany military personnel who are working together on joint projects.
The royal couple are to go to Hamburg on Friday, where they will visit the Kindertransport memorial for Jewish children who fled from Germany to Britain during the Third Reich, and attend a green energy event before returning to the UK.
France has faced an eruption of violent demonstrations over forced-through pension reforms.
On Tuesday protesters jumped onto train tracks at one of Paris' busiest railway stations, holding up passengers amid nationwide demonstrations.
Police security across France was ramped up amid government warnings that radical demonstrators intended “to destroy, to injure and to kill".
Sylvie Bermann, who served as Paris’ ambassador to Britain between 2014 and 2017, said Mr Macron wanted the visit to go ahead “until the last minute” before realising the situation was untenable.
She said a planned state banquet at the Palace of Versailles for Charles and Camilla would “not have given a good image”.
Lord Ricketts, a former national security adviser, said the lavish Versailles dinner would have had “echoes” of the French revolution if it had gone ahead during a public outcry at Mr Macron’s decision to push back the national retirement age.
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