Cologne Carnival: Float designs revealed

Children, in particular, love the Rose Monday procession at Carnival, bringing along all the bags they have to collect the sweets and other goodies thrown down from the floats. But the procession is also political, with caricaturists taking the opportunity to poke fun at public personalities and to make a serious comment about topical themes.

This design by caricaturist Rollo uses the fairy-tale figures of the hare and the hedgehog to comment on the recent troubles in Hambach Forest — known fondly by some as Hambi — where activists and police clashed over plans to clear woodland for a coal mine extension. To the doubtless relief of the resident wildlife, who here ask "What's the fuss?," the clearance plans have been suspended for now.

This float will have a very local relevance: Using the style of the "Lucky Luke" comics, Rollo shows Cologne mayor Henriette Reker with four hapless prisoners — a reference to the attempt by the city's supervisory board to appoint a director of municipal utilities without any public advertisement of the position. Critics see the scandal as an example of Cologne's notorious "Klüngelei" (nepotism).

This fish, which Rollo has modelled on the piscine movie star "Nemo," looks understandably upset at the piles of garbage bags littering the sea floor. "That gives you the blues" is the approximate translation of the speech bubble in the Cologne dialect.

Dirk Schmitt's drawing shows one possibility to avoid accidents with horses as occurred last year in Cologne and Bonn. It also shows how the local brew, "Kölsch," could theoretically be used to power vehicles. Animal activists are taking the matter very seriously, however, and have called for horses to be banned from taking part at all.