Unrest in France prompts postponement of King Charles III visit

PARIS – Violent pension reform protests in France led to the postponement on Friday of King Charles III’s trip to the country, highlighting the growing security and political problems faced by President Emmanuel Macron.

The French President condemned the latest burst of violence overnight, while a human rights watchdog criticised the “excessive use of force” by the police during recent demonstrations.

King Charles’ first foreign trip as monarch

had been intended to highlight warming Franco-British relations.

Instead, it has underlined the severity of demonstrations engulfing Britain’s neighbour just 10 months into Mr Macron’s second term.

Uproar over legislation to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 grew worse when Mr Macron exercised a controversial executive power to

push the plan through Parliament without a vote on March 16.

With fresh strikes expected next Tuesday on what would have been the second day of the King’s tour, Mr Macron

asked for the postponement of the royal visit,

said a British government spokesman.

Mr Macron’s office said the decision was made “to welcome His Majesty King Charles III in conditions which reflect our friendly relations”.

The police arrested more than 450 people on Thursday, according to Interior Ministry figures.

In addition, 441 members of the security forces were injured on

the most violent day of protests

since the start of the year.

More than 900 fires were lit around Paris, with anarchist groups blamed for

setting uncollected rubbish ablaze

and smashing shop windows, leading to frequent clashes with the riot police.

But rights groups, magistrates and left-wing politicians have also denounced alleged police brutality in recent days.

The Council of Europe – the continent’s leading human rights watchdog – warned that sporadic acts of violence “cannot justify excessive use of force by agents of the state” or “deprive peaceful protesters of their right to freedom of assembly”.

More than a million people marched in France on Thursday, according to official estimates, as the protest movement was reinvigorated by Mr Macron’s refusal to back down over the past week.

In the north-east city of Rennes, regional officials denied claims by union leaders that the police had deliberately targeted them with tear gas and a water cannon during Thursday’s protests.

In Bordeaux, protesters set fire to the ancient wooden entrance to the city hall on Thursday. King Charles had been set to visit the south-western city on Tuesday, after a day in Paris.

With protesters threatening to disrupt the royal visit and the streets of the capital strewn with rubbish because of a strike by waste collectors, some feel the trip’s postponement will avoid further embarrassment for France.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Brussels on Friday, Mr Macron said discussions over rescheduling the visit could take place in the coming months.

“We have proposed that at the beginning of the summer, depending on our respective agendas, we can arrange a new state visit,” he added.

He also insisted that

Paris “would not give in to the violence”.

“I condemn the violence and offer my full support to the security forces who worked in an exemplary manner.”

It remains unclear how the government will defuse a crisis that comes just four years after the Yellow Vest demonstrations rocked the country.

“Everything depends on one man who is a prisoner of the political situation,” political scientist Bastien Francois from the Sorbonne University in Paris told AFP.

Mr Laurent Berger, leader of the moderate CFDT union, said on Friday that he had spoken to an aide to the President and suggested a pause on implementing the pension law for six months while opening a channel for negotiations.

“It’s the moment to say: Listen, let’s put things on pause, let’s wait six months,” Mr Berger told RTL radio. “It would calm things down.”

While France’s Constitutional Court still needs to give the final word on the reform, Mr Macron said in a televised interview on Wednesday that the changes

needed to “come into force by the end of the year”.

Blockades of oil refineries by striking workers continued on Friday, but the energy transition ministry said it had requisitioned enough workers to restart production at one of these and resume fuel supply to the capital.

About 15 per cent of petrol stations were still out of at least one fuel by Friday morning, according to an analysis of public data by AFP.

Some flights have been cancelled until at least Wednesday at airports around the country due to a strike by air traffic controllers.

The police and protesters will face off again on Saturday, and not just at demonstrations over the pension reform.

At Saint Solines, central France, thousands of people are expected at a protest against the deployment of new water-storage infrastructure for agricultural irrigation, despite an official ban on the gathering. AFP