Almost 9 million people watched King Charles’s coronation live on TV in France, where the pomp and ceremony sickened the radical left while impressing the far right.
As the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is close to Charles, attended the service at Westminster Abbey, congratulating the monarchy who he said were “friends to France”, the French media’s massive focus on the event – with souvenir front pages and lengthy TV specials across different channels – caused high emotions across the polarised political landscape.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical-left La France Insoumise, said: “In front of a people who have been so humiliated by neoliberal politics, this theatrics of a man covered in fancy dress with jewels and precious stones has something nauseating about it.”
Addressing a rally in Marseille, he said the “syrupy” French TV coverage of the British coronation was regrettable “when so many people live in misery”. He said it was “a reminder to us why we are so deeply republican”, adding: “Kings are monsters who accept such a display in front of so much suffering.”
Alexis Corbière, a lawmaker with La France Insoumise, tweeted: “Why is the French media saturated with the coronation of Charles III, full of daft pro-monarchy commentary? That’s the choice of our British friends, but we French are republicans because the monarchy is an anti-democratic aberration.”
Laure Lavalette, an MP with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, tweeted a union jack flag, congratulated the British people and the Commonwealth for this “magnificent ceremony”, and praised “nations who are proud of their beautiful traditions and keep them alive”.
The leader of the rightwing Les Républicains lauded the event, hailing a “historic moment for the British people”, while Olivier Marleix, who heads the party’s MPs in parliament, tweeted “Long live the king!”.
A date has yet to be set for Charles to visit France – he had been scheduled to do so in March, his first trip abroad as king, but it was cancelled amid France’s strikes and protests against Macron raising the minimum eligible pension age from 62 to 64.
The French paper Le Journal du Dimanche described the coronation as “unique in Europe” but said the royal family’s wealth was becoming a “taboo” topic in the UK, with the fact that the British taxpayer picked up the bill for the sumptuous display “a bit painful” for many people.
Spanish media saw the event as an investment in a display of soft power by Britain. El País’s opinion writer Martín Bianchi tweeted a picture of the king and queen watching the flypast with the words: “The most expensive ad campaign in history.”
La campaña publicitaria más cara de la historia pic.twitter.com/RdxLxP0pL2
— Martín Bianchi Tasso (@martinbianchi) May 6, 2023
His conclusion in a comment piece was that the old monarchy continued as it always had done, despite the supposed modernisation of the ceremony. “Buckingham Palace and its powerful publicity machine have spent months bombarding the press with news on the changes made by the king to modernise his coronation ceremony,” he wrote, deciding that this was window dressing and that the monarchy ultimately remained unchanged in terms of power and privilege.
In Belgium, Le Soir was concerned that Charles had been snubbed by a raft of UK music talent who had found excuses not to play at his coronation concert.
The paper felt Charles was the royal who had “no doubt done the most for pop music”, saying that his Prince’s Trust foundation had set the tone for charity pop gigs in the 1980s. The paper felt that pop acts harshly staying away was due to “bad press” for the royals in recent times, including Prince Harry’s memoir as well as the “sordid affairs” of Prince Andrew.
Le Soir said pop musicians did not want to be associated with the monarchy, which had lost support among young people in the UK.
• This article was amended on 9 May 2023. The venue shown in the main image is in Meudon, not “Melun” as an earlier version of the caption said.
