King Charles III pleaded Thursday, September 21 for a new “understanding” with Paris on the climate and assured of the “unshakeable determination” of London and Paris to support Ukraine during a speech to French parliamentarians, unprecedented for a British monarch, greeted with thunderous applause.
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King Charles III pleaded Thursday for a new “ Agreement » with Paris on the climate and assured of the “ unwavering determination » from London and Paris to support Ukraine during a speech to French parliamentarians, unprecedented for a British monarch, hailed by a standing ovation.
Alternating speaking in French and English, King Charles III, with strong environmental convictions, proposed that France and the United Kingdom commit to an “Agreement for Sustainability” in order to better respond to the “emergency world in terms of climate and biodiversity.
Charles III in the Senate: “Despite the severity of the challenges facing our planet, it is urgent to see the measures taken by our governments…”
Inspired by the Entente Cordiale, a text signed in 1904 by the two countries to iron out their very strong differences at the time, the monarch, with a pink flower in his buttonhole, justified this initiative in the name of ” the example of the past” in order to “meet the immense challenges of the world around us », on the 2nd day of his first state visit to France.
These royal declarations come as the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Wednesday the postponement of several key climate policy measures from the United Kingdom.
“ On this major issue, on this great question of the millennium » what is the environment, « Marianne and Britannia will remain two sisters », Assured in the introduction the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet.
This speech from the podium of the French Senate was a first for a British sovereign. In 2004, his mother Elizabeth II gave a speech in the Senate conference room, in front of assembled deputies and senators, but not in the hemicycle.
On the diplomatic front, the king, who intends to establish his image internationally a year after his accession to the throne, assured Thursday of “ unwavering determination “from the UK and France to see Ukraine” triumph “.
On Wednesday evening, Charles III was received by President Emmanuel Macron for a sumptuous dinner at the Palace of Versailles, the highlight of the king’s visit to France, under the sign of Franco-British friendship after the turbulence of Brexit.
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This three-day visit to France, the first since the monarch’s coronation, “ is a sign of friendship and trust “, perceived ” as a tribute to our past, and as a guarantee of the future », Said the French president at the opening of the meal.
During the king’s speech to the Senate, Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron launched the Franco-British literary prize at the National Library. The French First Lady presented Charles III’s wife with a dress by Edith Piaf, as well as manuscripts by William Shakespeare and Victor Hugo.
Charles III’s visit to France should have taken place in March and been his first visit as king abroad, but it had to be canceled at the last minute amid violent demonstrations in France against pension reform.
Thursday afternoon at 3:40 p.m. (1:40 p.m. GMT), the king will speak at the end of a round table at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, devoted to “climate finance”, i.e. the actions taken by banks in the face of climate change, such as green financial products.
Previously, the monarch is expected at the gates of the French capital, in Saint-Denis, a deprived suburb but also the necropolis of the kings of France and the nerve center of the 2024 Olympic Games.
The rest of the program
Around 12:00 p.m. (10:00 a.m. GMT), the king, accompanied by Queen Camilla and Ms. Macron, is due to meet young people from Saint-Denis on the theme of sport, then will visit the cathedral of this city north of the capital, head of work of Gothic art and final resting place of the kings of France.
After a visit to the Flower Market, back in the historic center of Paris, the royal couple will join the Macron couple on the square in front of Notre-Dame de Paris at 2:45 p.m. local time (12:45 p.m. GMT) to meet members of the catering team of the cathedral ravaged by a gigantic fire in 2019, which is due to reopen in December 2024.
On Friday, the royal couple will travel to Bordeaux, for the third and final day of this state visit, to a region of southwest France hit hard by fires in 2022, which has many British residents.
There, with Queen Camilla, he will visit the frigate HMS Iron Duke, a Royal Navy ship, but also an experimental forest in Floirac, before ending with a visit to the Château Smith Haut Lafitte wine estate.
(and with agencies)
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