BERLIN: King Charles III called Russia’s war in Ukraine a threat to Europe’s democratic values in the first speech made by a monarch at the German parliament, but said allies like Germany and Britain can draw courage from their unity.

Speaking mostly in German through the 30-minute speech, Charles underlined that “the scourge of war is back in Europe, the war of aggression against Ukraine has brought unimaginable suffering on so many innocent people.” “The security of Europe as well as our democratic values are under threat. But the world did not stand idly by... we can draw courage from our unity,” he added.

Charles is on his first state visit since ascending the throne following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II last year, and his choice to travel to Germany has been viewed as a bid to build bridges following Brexit.

In Germany, the themes of reconciliation and a future ahead forged by common values have featured prominently in his speeches. Charles has blood ties to Germany, but the two countries had fought on opposing ends during two devastating world wars.

Speaking at the Bundestag on Thursday, he pointed to how far Britain and his hosts’ country had come in putting behind their conflict-ridden past as he underlined the common values they now share.

“Together we must be vigilant against threats to our values” and face them down resolutely, he said.

Reconciliation

On Friday (today), Charles will take a further step in rapprochement by commemorating victims of allied bombings during World War II in Hamburg.

Charles’ mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, had been a symbol of post-war reconciliation. It was World War I that had led the British royal family to drop their German name — Saxe-Coburg and Gotha — for Windsor.

The war in Ukraine is a key part of Charles’ programme on Thursday afternoon, with a visit of a reception centre for Ukrainian refugees right after the Bundestag speech.

He will also travel to neighbouring state Brandenburg where he will speak with a German-British battalion. A tour of an organic farm is also planned with environmental issues, which Charles championed long before he became Britain’s sovereign, key in his three-day programme.

Among his first engagements on Wednesday was a reception on sustainability, where he met with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economy Minister Robert Habeck, both from the Greens party.

On Friday, in the port city of Hamburg, he will tour a renewable energy project.

Charles, who has visited Germany 40 times, has always made sustainable farming a part of his visits to the country.

The monarch’s decades-long commitment to green farming has partly been nurtured by German professor Hardy Vogtmann, a leading voice on organic agriculture who became Charles’ advisor in the 1980s.

During one trip to Germany in 1997, Vogtmann arranged for Charles to tour several eco projects in the western state of Hesse, culminating in Charles jokingly being gifted a bag of compost.

On another occasion in 2013, the Welt newspaper said Charles was “clearly in his element” chatting to organic farmers and stroking a piglet on a field in Langenburg, north of Stuttgart.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2023