John Bell, LLM (Queen Mary University of London)*
Introduction
With cries of vive le roi! on the streets of Paris and a sumptuous banquet at Versailles, King Charles III and Queen Camilla recently brought a touch of ancien régime to the UK’s partner in the entente cordiale. After the Windsor Framework and UK-EU agreement on UK rejoining Horizon, the state visit was a classic display of the monarchy’s soft power in re-building bridges post-Brexit with a key EU and bilateral partner.
The set piece event of the state visit was the King’s speech to the French Senate on 21 September 2023. Not so ancien régime, this was the first time a British monarch had ever addressed the hemicycle of a French parliamentary assembly. I argue that the King’s speech is a Carolean innovation which shows a constitutional monarch conscious of democratic engagement.
In this article, I will address the nature of the monarchy’s soft power on display during the state visit in light of the need to rebuild UK-EU relations. I will then consider the King’s speech to the French Senate, arguing that it constitutes a Carolean innovation.
- Soft power and UK-EU relations
Following the Windsor Framework and the agreement on the UK rejoining Horizon, there has been a marked positive shift in UK-EU relations after years of post-Brexit political wrangling. It is not by mistake that the Foreign Office chose France and Germany, the driving forces of the EU, as the locations for the first state visits of the King’s reign. There is much bridge-building to be done.
Complementing positive policy decisions within the domain of the Government’s ‘hard power,’ the ‘soft power’ of the monarchy is an arguably intangible way of building bridges which cannot be achieved by policy decisions alone. It reinforces narratives of shared UK-French and, by implication, UK-EU values.
During his speech to the Senate, the King spoke of the joint responsibility of the UK and France for European and World security through the UN, G7 and NATO and naturally referred to joint efforts to ensure that Ukraine triumphs against Russia’s war of aggression. Referring to “the most existential challenge of all,” the King spoke of the need to strive together on global warming, climate change and the destruction of Nature.
The King’s role as an advocate on green issues is well known. As Prince of Wales, King Charles first publicly addressed the reality of climate change in 1970, bringing the issue into the mainstream, and has actively campaigned on the issue for decades. When the “Green King” talks about fighting climate change, people sit up and listen. Backed up with decades of credentials, this is monarchical soft power on steroids.
As a constitutional monarch, King Charles is formally apolitical. He can no longer be described as an activist, but as his speech to the Senate shows this does not stop the King being an advocate. By advocating in the chamber of an elected legislature, this is perhaps as far as the King can go within the bounds of constitutional propriety.
- Carolean innovation
The soft power of the monarchy is, of course, not in itself an innovation. The late Queen Elizabeth II carried out numerous state visits during her reign, all meticulously planned by the Government of the day.
However, there is something particular about the King becoming the first British monarch to address a French parliamentary chamber. One wonders what message the Foreign Office were trying to send. The King’s address to the French Senate follows a similar address to the Bundestag on the King’s state visit to Germany earlier in 2023 and appears to represent a wider trend.
I wonder if this Carolean innovation speaks to a more democratic King, wanting to appear closer to elected legislators. Perhaps soft power (turbocharged in the case of climate change) can be seen with more weight or even more legitimacy when addressed to an elected legislature.
Or perhaps it is simply a question of PR and the Foreign Office considered that the King using his soft power to talk about shared values made more sense post-Brexit in the Senate chamber, bedecked with UK, French and EU flags. Given the applause, this certainly appears to have had the desired effect.
As stated above, the King is apolitical and there is no reason why a constitutional monarch should not address the elected legislature of a close strategic partner. The question is whether this was a concerted effort to put a stamp of Carolean innovation on the King’s reign and whether UK-EU relations post-Brexit (or even King Charles’s green credentials) was a consideration in any such effort.
By coincidence, the day before the King’s speech to the Senate, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a speech in Downing Street reversing several of the Government’s climate change policies to achieve Net Zero by 2050. Interestingly, by aiming for a 2035 ban on new petrol-and-diesel car sales, the UK is now on a par with the EU. Before this hard power policy shift at No 10, the King’s soft power in fact spoke to a more ambitious UK policy on Net Zero than the EU, a fact one imagines was not lost on the Foreign Office.
Conclusion
The French Senate has its roots in English bicameralism. Whilst the present French Senate dates to the 1958 French Constitution, its forerunner the Conseil des Anciens was created in the 1795 Constitution influenced by Montesquieu’s view of English liberty and the separation of powers (more accurately described as the balance of powers).
As Montesquieu would no doubt have appreciated, the UK’s constitutional monarchy is key to the British system. In his historic and welcome address to the French Senate, King Charles demonstrates the boundaries of the monarchy’s soft power: advocating but apolitical.
I argue that the King’s speech to the Senate is a Carolean innovation which demonstrates the high watermark of the monarchy’s soft power in foreign policy. The King’s credentials on green issues add a fascinating dynamic to this power. Post-Brexit, the reception of the King’s speech at the very least reinforces common values and at its highest speaks to the zeitgeist of improved UK-EU relations.
From the hemicycle of the French Senate, King Charles III has demonstrated that he is an advocate in transnational democratic engagement.
*John Bell, LLM (Queen Mary University of London) is a Legal Assistant at the Financial Reporting Council and a former Schuman Trainee at the European Parliament. John is a regular contributor on Brexit and constitutional law matters. His views are solely his own.
Photo credits: French Senate
The views expressed in this blog reflect the position of the author and not necessarily that of the Brexit Institute Blog.