Charles III, the 74-years-old king of the UK, started his state visit to the Continent. He is accompanied by his wife Camilla, the 75-years-old queen consort. The king and queen consort’s four-day state visit to France has been postponed because of the strikes. They meant to go to France before Germany, but the fact that the German visit is working out while the French one is not quite, may be an omen in and of itself.
The British monarch has two messages for other Europeans:
- the Europeans need to continue being united in defending peace and freedom, and
- the Europeans need to keep on fighting climate, including by switching from fossil fuels, i.e. oil and gas from Russia, the Persian Gulf, etc., and emphasizing hydrogen energy.
King Charles stressed that Germany has been as proactive in helping Ukraine as his own UK. “We have not [just] stood by!” – he told the German parliamentarians in his Bundestag speech that he uttered in English and German. Chancellor Scholz and many other dignitaries were in presence. “Even as we abhor the appalling scenes of destruction, we can take heart from our unity – in defence of Ukraine, of peace and freedom,” – the British king continued, emphasizing that the UK and Germany are closely cooperating despite Brexit.
The king and the queen split to visit different refugee centers in Berlin. King Charles visited one set up specifically for Ukrainians in the closed-down airport Tegel that now accommodates 3,600 refugees. The queen consort visited “Sharehaus Refugio” that provides refuge, community and renewal for wanderers of different cultures (see their pictures below).
Later in the day, Charles III viewed a demonstration of amphibious vehicles of a joint German-British military unit.
Today the constitutional monarch is traveling to Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, to discuss the plans to use hydrogen to attain a full sustainability of this Hanseatic port.
