Pomp, pageantry and politesse greet French PM Macron in display of British royals' soft power
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, arrived in Britain on Tuesday at the start of a state visit as the two countries highlight their long friendship with conspicuous displays of military pomp, golden carriages and royal toasts.
The backdrop for day one is Windsor Castle, a royal fortress for over 900 years that remains a working palace today.
Prince William and the Princess of Wales greeted the Macron's at RAF Northolt outside London. King Charles III later formally welcomed the couple later at Windsor Castle, where they rode in a horse-drawn carriage and reviewed a military guard of honor. The first day will end with a state banquet at the castle.
Charles and Queen Camilla traveled to France in September 2023 in a visit that highlighted the historic ties between Britain and its closest European neighbor.
That royal trip came after years of sometimes prickly relations strained by Britain's exit from the European Union and disagreements over the growing number of migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats.
President Macron's arrival in Britain marks the first state visit by a French head of state since President Nicolas Sarkozy traveled to London in 2008.
What's happening
State visits are ceremonial meetings between heads of state that are used to honor friendly nations and sometimes smooth relations between rivals. While the king formally issues the invitation for a state visit, he does so on the advice of the elected government.
State visits to Britain are particularly prized by heads of state because they come with a full complement of royal pomp and circumstance, including military reviews, carriage rides and a glittering state banquet hosted by the monarch.
The events normally take place in and around Buckingham Palace in central London. But the Macrons will stay at Windsor Castle, to the west of the capital. Buckingham Palace is undergoing extensive remodeling.
'Cherry on the top'
This is just the fifth state visit since King Charles ascended the throne in September 2022.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had the honor of receiving the first invitation for a state visit during the new king's reign and spent three days in Britain in November 2022. The leaders of Qatar, Japan and South Korea have also received the full royal treatment.
More controversially, Charles has invited U.S. President Donald Trump to make an unprecedented second state visit to Britain, which is expected to take place in the autumn.
While Prime Minister Keir Starmer is trying to bolster relations with the U.S., some U.K. lawmakers have questioned whether Trump should be awarded such an honor after he torpedoed long-standing norms for global trade, refused to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine and proposed moving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.
'An invitation for a state visit is highly prized amongst world leaders,'' said Craig Prescott, a constitutional law expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, who focuses on the political role of the monarchy. 'Now, it won't necessarily turn an enemy into an ally, but it can be part of that broader diplomatic move to maybe get the best out of someone.
'It's that cherry on the top, but at times it could be a very valuable cherry.'
Queen Elizabeth II, Charles' mother, hosted 112 state visits during her seven decades on the throne.
Pomp and ceremony
State visits are nothing if not a showcase for the British military, which has a global reputation for putting on displays of spit-and-polish precision by soldiers wearing their iconic scarlet tunics and bearskin hats.
Active duty troops who rotate from operational assignments to ceremonial duties put in thousands of hours of training to ensure everything goes off without a hitch.
Some 950 service members from all branches of the U.K. military will take part in the ceremonies, including 380 on street-lining duties and 180 in the Guard of Honor at Windsor Castle. Six military bands will perform a selection of both British and French music.
The display is seen by the British government as a nod to close defense and diplomatic ties but also hints at the ambition for the visit, which may see new defense and security commitments.
But one horse will get special attention. The Macrons will visit Fabuleu de Maucour, a horse given by the French leader to the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, when the nation celebrated the Platinum Jubilee marking her 70 years on the throne.
Lingua franca
Count on the French language to be used both in private and in public.
King Charles made a point of speaking French when he addressed lawmakers in the Senate chamber in Paris on the second day of his visit to France in 2023. During that speech, the king said the alliance between Britain and France was more important than ever as he recalled how the two nations had worked together to defeat the Nazi regime.
Charles was a frequent visitor to France before becoming king, making 35 official visits to the country as heir to the throne.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
33 minutes ago
- New York Times
Independent English football regulator given green light by MPs
The bill to introduce English football's first independent regulator was approved in the House of Commons on Tuesday by a majority of 415 votes in favour to 98 against, making its passage into law this summer a formality. In a lively third reading of the bill, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy and sports minister Stephanie Peacock said football fans had waited long enough for a government to protect clubs from rogue owners. They also poked fun at the opposition benches for the Conservative Party's U-turn on independent regulation, despite their active support for the idea when they were in government, and pointed out that politicians from all parties had been talking about this for more than a decade. Advertisement 'We are doing this for you, the best fans in the world,' Nandy told a well-attended debate. 'For too long you've been treated as an afterthought, at best, and a nuisance, at worst, in a game that's only great because of you.' She then said the bill was for the supporters of clubs that have either gone bust, such as Bury and Macclesfield, or have got very close to the precipice, such as Wigan, Bolton, Derby, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe, the National League side that faces a very uncertain future as a proposed takeover is being held up by their current owner. While the vote was another resounding victory for the government on this bill's passage through parliament, the shadow sports minister Louie French did not go down without swinging. The Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup repeatedly accused the government of risking English football's financial health by 'replacing the risk of irresponsible owners with reckless political interference', saying the regulator would tie clubs up in red tape and had too much power. French also clashed with Nandy over his claim that the government's choice to chair the independent regulatory, veteran media executive and Labour Party donor David Kogan, was a 'government crony'. Nandy hit back hard at this line of attack, noting that Kogan's name was on a long list of candidates she inherited from the last Conservative government, which included a Conservative Party donor, and that Kogan had been appointed to chair public broadcaster Channel 4 by the Conservatives. But she was warned by the speaker of the house for suggesting that French was displaying 'staggering hypocrisy', as that would be 'unparliamentary language'. French, however, did attempt to add an amendment to the bill that would have ended the ban on fans being allowed to drink alcohol within sight of the pitch in the top five tiers of men's football in England. The amendment was defeated by 178 votes in support to 338 against. Advertisement The government's stance on this idea is more nuanced than the vote would suggest, however. In fact, the last government approved a pilot scheme to test if alcohol could be made as available at football games as it is at cricket, rugby and all other sports, as well music events held at football stadiums. Those pilots did not happen, though, and the Labour government is keen to push on with them. The Liberal Democrats also proposed an amendment to the bill that would have seen 10 Premier League games a season ring-fenced for broadcast on free-to-air channels, plus the League Cup final and all of the EFL's play-off finals. While this idea would undoubtedly be a crowd-pleaser, it would also almost certainly scupper English football's business model, which is highly dependent on the large fees it receives from the likes of Sky Sports and TNT Sports in return for exclusive live rights. It is also hard to think of a better example of the type of government interference that the bill's critics, most notably the Premier League, have been warning against. As a result, the government did not support the Liberal Democrat idea and it was defeated by 340 votes to 86. The bill, without these two defeated amendments, now goes back to the House of Lords for its consent to the small number of changes the House of Commons did make to the original draft, which should be quickly nodded through, leaving only the final formality of royal assent before it becomes law. After such a smooth passage through parliament, the government is confident this will happen before Westminster's summer recess, which starts 22 July.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lucid Shatters World Record With 749-Mile Drive On A Single Charge
The widespread adoption of electric vehicles has long been hindered by a two-headed dragon: the lack of public charging infrastructure and the typical driver's range anxiety. These obstacles push automakers to find ways to improve range and show off their progress. A Lucid Air Grand Touring took the Guinness World Record for the longest trip in an EV on a single charge last weekend. The luxury sedan completed an impressive 749-mile journey between St. Moritz, Switzerland and Munich, Germany, shattering the previous record by nearly 100 miles. Behind the wheel of the Lucid was Umit Sabanci, a London-based entrepreneur who has the eccentric hobby of breaking Guinness World Records. In 2017, Sabanci set the record for visiting the most countries in 24 hours by scheduled transportation. He and a friend darted to 13 countries across Europe. In 2022, he completed the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth by scheduled flights. Sabanci flew a three-flight itinerary from and to Los Angeles International Airport in 46 hours and 23 minutes via Doha, Qatar and Brisbane, Australia. Sabanci previously worked with Lucid. He broke the record driving to the most countries on a single charge in June 2024. The vanity record breaker drove 567 miles southward through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein and Italy. In a statement regarding the single-charge distance record, he said: "When I completed the nine-country journey in 2024, it was just the beginning. This new achievement takes that journey even further. I'm proud to be part of a movement that proves electric mobility isn't just the future; it's already redefining what's possible today." Read more: These Are The Cars Our Readers Wish Would Depreciate Faster If his background didn't show it, he isn't an elite-level EV hypermiling tuner. The run was done in collaboration with Lucid. The California-based manufacturer likely provided the modifications and expertise necessary to extend the drive far beyond the Lucid Air Grand Touring's EPA-estimated range of 516 miles. Lucid has stripped the record from a privately run Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+. The previous record of 645 miles was set just last month and broke the symbolic 1,000-kilometer barrier. One can only hope that competition for bragging rights between manufacturers will drive the record even further out and lead to technology that will become standard across all EVs. It's hard to believe that we're only three years removed from Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX's unveiling. The German automaker built a hyper-efficient electric concept car to prove that an electric vehicle could have 1,000 kilometers of range. However, the one-off car was designed as a bland, blobby teardrop to minimize drag, taking function over form to the extreme. Now, we're seeing typically styled electric cars blasting past the 1,000-km mark. It's impressive to see how far EVs have progressed in recent years, and hopefully, this level of development won't stop. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Kaitlan Collins presses Trump on who paused Ukraine weapons
President Trump's approval of sending defensive weapons to Ukraine amounted to a turnaround after a senior White House official told CNN last week that the administration was pausing some of those shipments. CNN's Kaitlan Collins questioned the President about the pause.
