High point of the street carnival: Cologne's Rosenmontag parade has started - Cologne's Rose Monday Parade Honors Volunteers Amid Rain and Political Satire
Cologne's traditional Rose Monday parade kicked off on Monday morning, with Germany's largest carnival procession setting off at 10:00 a.m. in the rain from Severin Gate in the city's southern district. The first floats were expected to reach the end of the route nearly four hours later. Revelers can look forward to around 300 tons of sweets and roughly 300,000 small bouquets.
This year's carnival theme in Cologne, "ALAAF – Mer dun et för Kölle" ("We're doing it for Cologne"), pays tribute to the roughly 200,000 volunteers who contribute to the city, according to the festival committee. The parade's floats will address topics such as the far-right AfD party's surge in opinion polls and attempts to curry favor with former U.S. President Donald Trump.
As usual, the parades in Düsseldorf and Mainz will begin only after Cologne's procession gets underway. In Düsseldorf, some floats will once again take aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin—despite an ongoing criminal trial in Moscow against Jacques Tilly, the city's chief float designer.
For years, Tilly has satirized Putin and his aggressive policies. Last year, a Russian court initiated criminal proceedings against Tilly over his satirical jabs. The case has since sparked widespread debate.
Sketch designs released by Düsseldorf's carnival association on Monday morning showed one float depicting Putin piloting a drone labeled "AfD." Another float portrayed him alongside Trump, with both figuratively devouring Europe.
Read also:
- American teenagers taking up farming roles previously filled by immigrants, a concept revisited from 1965's labor market shift.
- Weekly affairs in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)
- Landslide claims seven lives, injures six individuals while they work to restore a water channel in the northern region of Pakistan
- Escalating conflict in Sudan has prompted the United Nations to announce a critical gender crisis, highlighting the disproportionate impact of the ongoing violence on women and girls.
