King Charles III, welcomed at the end of the week by Emmanuel Macron, is "welcome" to France despite the social movement on pensions, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Thursday on TF1.
"It is the representative of the Great Bretons, it is they who choose the regime that suits them," noted the head of LFI.
"They have a king, it's not our taste for us French people who are Republicans," he smiled.
"But he is welcome because he represents the English people, as long as the English people have not done what is necessary, that is to say to establish a republic", estimated Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The former presidential candidate added mischievously: "Because the English one day or another will have a republic, like the Spaniards, and all free countries".
Tuesday in a meeting in Ariège, he had been more acidic, addressing Emmanuel Macron, who refuses to withdraw his controversial pension reform: "What do you leave us as a perspective, apart from admiring you at Versailles with the king, I know not how many?"
And the one who applied three times to be head of the French state had also addressed Charles III: "Here it is the Republic. Listen, sir, we have nothing against you, you are the king of the English it's your business, but the rest of us, Versailles is fine... It was not the right time".
For his first state visit abroad as sovereign from Sunday to Wednesday, Charles III will meditate at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris before addressing the Senate, a first for a British monarch. He will also travel to Bordeaux in the South West. A state dinner will take place on Monday evening at the Château de Versailles.
But the outbursts and the tension which have increased this week in the mobilization against the postponement of the retirement age to 64, as well as declarations of distrust by certain trade unionists vis-à-vis the arrival of Charles III , worry the English authorities.
Asked about the clashes between the police and demonstrators, Jean-Luc Mélenchon recalled: "I do not agree with these forms of action, they make the peaceful social movement invisible".
03/23/2023 23:49:57 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
