Ah!, it will be fine, it will be fine... There is an air of 1789 that vibrates around the Versailles reception of Charles III. Provocation or clumsiness, the radical left is making its voice heard against a gala dinner deemed more than inappropriate in the Hall of Mirrors, at a time when France is shaken by demonstrations against pension reform. Especially since the evening promises to be sumptuous: concert in the Royal Chapel, with works by Purcell and Handel, visit of the royal apartments then seated dinner for 200 people in the famous gallery, where we will use for the occasion the splendid service aux Oiseaux by Duplessis, made during the reign of Louis XV…
What give hives to some, starting with Sandrine Rousseau. "We are going to have Emmanuel Macron, the Republican monarch, who will receive Charles III [...] while the people are in the streets demonstrating," MP Nupes lamented on BFMTV. "Is the priority really to receive Charles III at Versailles?" But no, no. And to request the cancellation of the visit.
Sandrine Rousseau thus follows in the wake of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who felt on Tuesday, during a meeting in Ariège, that this visit came at the wrong time, ironically speaking about Emmanuel Macron: "What do you leave as a perspective apart admiring yourself at Versailles with King Charles I-don't-know-how-much? Before addressing the British sovereign directly: “Mr. King, listen, here we have nothing against you. You are the King of the English, that's your business, but the rest of us, Versailles, what's up..." The picture would not be complete without Olivier Besancenot's climb on the barricades, warning from the outset that the King would be welcomed "by a good old general strike".
It is true that Versailles has always been vomited by the far left: a symbol of absolutism and conservatism, the Bourbon Palace evokes the luxury and omnipotence of the Ancien Régime. It was here that the beginning of the French Revolution was played out, when the royal family was physically brought back to Paris in October 1789 by mobs of angry Parisians. It was also there that the Thiers government and the conservative Assembly took refuge in 1871 to crush the Paris Commune, this short-lived revolution which lasted barely three months - Versailles against Communards then clashed during the famous "bloody week". ". In politics, symbols are worth all words: by waving the Versailles flag in the middle of the strike, we were sure to rekindle the sparks...
Can you imagine a gala dinner while protesters make their voices heard around the castle? The image would be disastrous for the King of England, especially as it is his first official trip abroad as a sovereign… But after rumors of dinner trips, the British government said on Thursday , through the voice of a Downing Street spokesperson, "not being aware of any change of plans" regarding Charles III's visit to France. Who said hosting a king was a cakewalk?
