King faces being greeted with 'good old general strike' in historic first state visit to France as monarch
21 March 2023, 19:26
King Charles faces being hit greeted with a "good old general strike" in his state visit to France, as its streets descend into chaos amid angry protests.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Unions are stepping up their campaign against Emmanuel Macron's bid to hike up the pension age.
Demonstrators warned they would set up protests and blockades during the visit to Bordeaux and stop him getting the tram, which he had reportedly planned to do on the historic trip.
"We are going to greet [Charles] with a good old general strike," a spokesman for the radical New Anti-Capitalist Party, Olivier Besancenot, said.
Pascal Mesgueni, of the Confederation Francaise des Travailleurs Chretiens union who is Bordeaux's public transport network, said it would be "almost certain" he won't be able to take the tram.
"No drivers will want to drive him. There will be supervisors or managers [willing] to do it but there will be people on the tracks. And they will have to protect him with vehicles in front and behind [the tram]," he said.
"Logistically, it's very heavy, to say nothing of the risk of projectiles. It's going to be much too complicated."
Any serious disruption would mire the first state visit by the King since he became monarch.
He will visit between Sunday and Wednesday with the Queen, during which he will enjoy a state banquet with Mr Macron and his wife, and then fly to Berlin.
It would also embarrass the French, who have seen protests over President Macron's pension reforms spiral out of control.
Riots erupted after Mr Macron forced through a Bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote.
Police have been deploying tear gas and water cannons as protesters fires and threatened the president's home in angry scenes.
