Floats showed Trump waving a Nazi Stars and Stripes, Hamas pushing families in front of Israeli tanks and Putin in a compromising pose with the head of the Russian church in an annual German satirical parade.
Throngs of revellers took to the streets of Germany’s carnival strongholds for Rose Monday parades, which are a traditional high point of carnival celebrations in Cologne, Duesseldorf, Mainz and other places in western Germany.
Every year, costly and intricately built floats feature huge caricature puppets of politicians, addressing current national and global issues with biting sarcasm.
In Duesseldorf, a float had the former US president Donald Trump carrying scissors and a US flag cut into the shape of a swastika.
Another depicted the 2024 presidential election candidate stabbing a Ukrainian soldier in the back – a reference to opposition among Republicans to aid for Ukraine.
One float appeared to show a kneeling Vladimir Putin in camouflage clothing holding on to the head of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill.
The latter also seemed to be kneeling while holding onto Putin and pressing his face into the Russian leader’s front.
The very compromising pose Putin and Kirill are in indicates the head of the Russian church performs a sexual act on his country’s president. The side of the float read: ‘From Russia with love.’
The war between Israel and Hamas was also a theme, with a float in Duesseldorf depicting a figure in military garb labelled ‘Hamas’ pushing what appeared to be a family toward an Israeli tank.
This year, a larger-than-life Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky progressed through the streets of Cologne with a sign reading ‘To be or NATO be’. Mr Zelensky wants Ukraine to be able to join the Western military alliance.
Another Duesseldorf carnival float depicts Russia’s president Vladimir Putin eating the Ukraine, with the lettering reading ‘choke on it’.
A sign was attached to the bottom of the float which read: ‘Two years old but sadly still current’.
In Mainz, a Barbies and Ken pink car float featured Russian President Vladimir Putin behind Alice Weidel and Sahra Wagenknecht, the co-leaders of German political parties the far-right Alternative for Germany and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance.
Both Weidel and Wagenknecht’s parties criticise sanctions against Russia and oppose weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
Another float criticised the media, with a flame figure – writing on the side called it ‘2023: the hottest year of all time’ – tapping on the shoulder of a man holding a camera angled on a sign resembling a blast that said ‘wars’.
Germany’s unpopular government came in for lampooning, with chancellor Olaf Scholz portrayed as a sloth and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as an elephant in a porcelain shop, the German equivalent of a bull in a china shop.
One parade float depicted chancellor Olaf Scholz and showed him with a hole in his head, calling him ‘Hole-af Scholz’.
The parade in Duesseldorf included 8000 participants in 85 groups walking along on foot and 110 floats.
The floats were designed by Jacques Tilly, Germany’s leading carnival float designer, who in previous years already depicted satirical scenes with leaders like Trump and Putin.
Millions of dressed-up revellers also took to the streets across Germany today to celebrate carnival for Rose Monday, which traditionally takes place on the Monday before Ash Wednesday.
Schools are closed in the region so children can attend the popular street parades featuring floats, brass bands and dance groups throwing candy, chocolates and flowers to the spectators.
At the Cologne street parade alone, parade participants would throw 700,000 bars of chocolate, 300,000 bouquets of flowers to spectators and 220,000 boxes of pralines.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
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