Charles III did his first visit Tuesday as a king in Northern Ireland, where Brexit has relaunched the idea of a separation of the United Kingdom and reunification with Ireland.
Le Monde with AFP
The first visit to Ireland in the north of Charles III, arrived Tuesday September 13 in Belfast, takes place in a context of tensions at the time when he succeeds Elizabeth II in an atmosphere of popular fervor and national emotion. p>
As soon as he arrived at the Château de Hillsborough, Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla went into contact with the thousands of people massaged behind the barriers, shaking hands, greeting the children, exchanging a few words, images that are difficult to imagine at the time of “Disorders” (North Irish conflict).
Paralyzed politically, and in full upheaval under the effect of victory in the last elections of the Republicans of Sinn Fein, who do not recognize the authority of the monarchy, Northern Ireland remains the most delicate stage of The new king’s tour in the four constitutive nations of the United Kingdom. The sovereign had played a major role in reconciliation, in this province with a bloody past. But almost a quarter of a century after the return of a fragile peace between Republicans, especially Catholic, and Unionists, essentially Protestants, the tensions were revived by Brexit, relaunching the idea of a separation of the United Kingdom and of a reunification with Ireland.
After visiting the British Parliament of London on Monday, then that of Edinburgh in Scotland on Monday, the new sovereign will go to Cardiff on Friday in Wales .
Critical moment
In Edinburgh, tens of thousands of British waited for hours all night and again for hours on Tuesday morning to meditate in front of the sovereign’s coffin that rested in Saint-Gilles cathedral, in the Scottish capital. King Charles III and his three brothers and sister, the princes Andrew and Edward and Princess Anne came in the evening with Queen Camilla observing a funeral vigil. The photo of the children of Elizabeth II, back to the coffin, made the “one” of all the daily newspapers on Tuesday.
Tensions in Northern Ireland, independentist inclinations in Scotland, a galloping inflation that leads to purchasing power, the new 73 -year -old king, older than all British sovereigns to their accession to the throne, settles in his functions In a critical moment. The country, plagued by a serious social and political crisis, has a new Prime Minister for a few days, Liz Truss.
Continuing her last trip, the queen’s body was to embark Tuesday afternoon aboard a royal plane for London, escorted by Princess Anne. She will be welcomed upon his arrival by King Charles and other members of the royal family and will spend the night at the Buckingham Palace. The second part of presentation to the public will then start this time, which should see hundreds of thousands of people parading for a little less than five days out of twenty-four, before the official funeral, on September 19, Queen died last Thursday at 96 years old. Some began to queue on Monday.