A royal banquet at the Palace of Versailles planned for King Charles is forced to be relocated due to continuous threats of violence in Paris.
The banquet was planned for Monday.
Protests have been sweeping France’s capital this week in direct response to President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to force the divisive bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 through without a vote in parliament.
As political unrest continues to tear through the city, preventative measures are being taken ahead of the King’s upcoming State Visit to France — his first as monarch.
Macron’s aide told news broadcaster BFM TV that the lavish dinner can no longer take place at the planned venue.
“The dinner between Charles III and Emmanuel Macron, planned for Monday, may not be held at Versailles, as initially planned,” the president’s aide told the outlet.
Organizers “plan to hold it somewhere else,” as the Elysée Palace in central Paris is currently being eyed-up as a replacement.
The banquet was set to be a “highlight” for Britain’s new sovereign, who is set to be formally crowned on May 6.
Charles is traveling to Paris alongside his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort and the pair were due to dine at Versailles on Monday evening alongside 200 guests invited exclusively by Macron.
Paris police said Tuesday that hundreds of people were arrested in the capital mostly for setting fire to garbage in the streets.
Mostly small, scattered protests were held in cities around France, some degenerating into violence late Monday and continuing on through the week.
In the capital, small groups took to the streets to set fire to piles of trash that have formed because of a strike by garbage collectors.
Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez said the violence was caused by groups of up to 300 people quickly moving through the city.
Nunez told BFM TV that he ordered an internal investigation after an officer was filmed punching a man who was walking backward, making him fall to the ground.
The bill that sparked the protests still faces a review by the Constitutional Council before it can be formally signed into law.
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