Charles III and Emmanuel Macron celebrate the renewal of Franco-British friendship

Accuracy is the courtesy of kings. Emmanuel Macron belied his reputation as a patent latecomer to welcome His Majesty Charles III and Queen Camilla in front of the Arc de Triomphe at the very minute, at 2:45 p.m., as planned, three quarters of an hour after they got off the plane at Orly , Wednesday, for a three-day state visit. Even if it was six months behind the initial schedule, disrupted by the violence of the demonstrations against the pension reform.

Very comfortable, the president and the monarch displayed a form of complicity during the ceremonies at the tomb of the unknown soldier, a descent of the Champs-Élysées (fairly sparse) in a presidential DS with an opening roof escorted by the Republican Guard or during a quick, falsely improvised stroll on the Faubourg-Saint-Honoré between the Élysée Palace and the United Kingdom embassy.

A few timid “Long live the king!” sounded. Highlight of this first day: the sumptuous state dinner offered by the Republic at the Palace of Versailles, with 160 guests - blue lobster, Bresse poultry and rose macaroon on the menu. Make-up session for a canceled visit, Emmanuel Macron skipped the United Nations General Assembly in New York to welcome these distinguished guests. This shows the importance of the issue of strengthening the Franco-British bond, a few months before the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale.

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With the king, Macron is visibly seeking to create one of those “bromances” (virile friendship) that he likes with the powerful, from Donald Trump or Justin Trudeau to Mohammed Ben Salman. While etiquette forbade touching the late Elizabeth II, the president did not hesitate to pat his royal guest on the back or give him a hug. As for Brigitte Macron, she simply kissed the queen, whose pink hat threatened to fly away with the wind.

The two heads of state communicate equally well in their respective languages, without an interpreter. According to the Élysée, they have forged “bonds of friendship and trust” over multiple meetings. The president got to know the man who was only Prince of Wales during the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Allied Landings or for the 80th anniversary of the June 18 appeal in London.

They even cooperated during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 to raise funds to plant trees along an 8,000 kilometer strip in Africa. Charles then personally convinced Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to donate $1 billion to this initiative called the “Great Green Wall,” Macron said. The two men met again at the funeral of Elizabeth II a year ago - it was there that Macron invited the new sovereign on a state visit to Paris - then at Charles' coronation in May.

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His commitment to the environment was to be at the heart of his face-to-face meeting with the president, who is due to present his green agenda on Monday. At the very moment when the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced on the contrary, in the absence of the sovereign in London, a step back on his ecological commitments. The host of the Élysée offered an original edition of The Roots of Heaven, by Romain Gary, a plea in favor of the protection of the planet, to the king, who in return gave him Letters on the English by Voltaire.

According to Macron, Charles “is a formidable architect of friendship between France and the United Kingdom”. This reconciliation, after years of tensions linked to Brexit, was the first objective of the visit. Since its postponement in March, relations have already relaxed significantly. After the conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in March, the president received at the Élysée on Tuesday the leader of the Labor opposition, Keir Starmer, given the winner by the polls of the next elections scheduled for 2024, in order to prepare the future of bilateral cooperation.

In addition to global warming, biodiversity and the Franco-British relationship, the king, constitutionally neutral, had to address very political subjects with his French host. The war in Ukraine and the situation in the Sahel were on the agenda, as well as artificial intelligence.

The political fabric of the monarch should take shape again this Thursday in the speech he is due to give to the Senate. Even if the text will have been written by the British government, its style clearly aspires to stand out from that, more symbolic and representative, of Elizabeth II.