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Video. Germany : From Trump to Putin, Cologne’s Rose Monday Floats Skewer World Leaders
Cologne's carnival featured 300,000 flower bouquets and 300 tonnes of sweets thrown from satirical floats targeting global and German leaders.
- On Shrove Monday, Cologne's Rosenmontag parades featured colourful satirical papier-mache floats overseen by sculptor Jacques Tilly, with organisers arranging 300,000 bouquets and 300 tonnes of sweets.
- Carnival provides a forum where Cologne's carnival allows Germans to satirise Germany's top leaders and international figures, using humour to make politics more approachable.
- This year, float makers highlighted notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein portrayed as a vampire and Chancellor Friedrich Merz with Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder riding a dinosaur skeleton labelled `combustion engine`, while other floats addressed children and phone use.
- Jacques Tilly faces legal threats and a trial in absentia in Moscow accused of spreading false information about the Russian military, though he calls his creations `foolish and satirical`.
- Cities like Düsseldorf and Cologne maintain a playful core as revellers walk beside floats that satirise politicians and address wider social debates, highlighting tradition and satire.
Insights by Ground AI
17 Articles
17 Articles
On the Rosenmontag trains hundreds of thousands of people in the strongholds of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz celebrated the highlight of this year's street carnival.
·Germany
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Trump, Epstein, Chamenei and also Merz: In Cologne everyone gets what they want during the Rosenmontagszug. Only Putin is missing, Düsseldorf has taken over.
·Munich, Germany
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In Düsseldorf and all over Germany, hundreds of thousands of carnavaliers march this Monday with satirical tanks, targeting Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump or German Chancellor Friedrich
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the revelers are out again: See the funniest floats, costumes and pictures from the Rose Monday parade 2026 in our photo gallery.
·Berlin, Germany
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Total News Sources17
Leaning Left2Leaning Right2Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Center
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources are Center
60% Center
L 20%
C 60%
R 20%
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