King Charles’s state visit to France and a banquet at the Palace of Versailles could have had “echoes” of the French Revolution, according to a former British ambassador to France, reports The Guardian.
Peter Ricketts, who was Britain’s envoy in France from 2012 to 2016, said the dinner would have been poorly timed, coming during widespread protests against the French president, Emmanuel Macron’s, plans to change the pension system and raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The visit was postponed on Friday as the revolt continued. On Thursday night 441 police officers were injured in violent protests, and 903 fires had to be put out by French firefighters. A total of 457 people were arrested. A visit could instead take place at the start of the summer.
The king and queen consort were due to visit Bordeaux on Tuesday. Demonstrators set fire to its 18th-century front door earlier this week. There was concern protesters would target the Palace of Versailles, where a dinner was due to be held.
The trappings of a state visit by King Charles amid violent clashes between protesters and police over the changes would have evoked a resemblance with the French Revolution of the 18th century.
The revolt over living standards in comparison to the extravagance of the court of Louis XVI resulted in the monarchy being overthrown, a republic established, and his wife, Marie Antoinette, and others executed.
Lord Ricketts said: “The fact that there are now these violent protests which seem to be growing made, in particular, the idea of a banquet in Versailles a particularly bad idea. That had all kinds of echoes from the past going back to the revolution.