It is rare for celebrities to destroy their own work. In the fall, the famous street artist Banksy did so by destroying his own image after an auction. Angela Merkel now applies this technique to herself - not the real Merkel, of course.
The self-shredding Chancellor is one of the motives behind this year's Rosenmontag parade in Cologne, which has now been unveiled. Also to be seen as Pappkameraden include Donald Trump and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. The Merkel motif is laconically commented: "Nothing stays as it was."
On another car, the new CDU chairman Kramp-Karrenbauer should stand on the podium and open a bottle of "Merkel Brut", while the defeated candidate Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn is not really ready to celebrate. Some motives also refer to the Cologne local politics - so Lord Mayor Henriette Reker catches about the Klüngel Daltons.
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Motive for Cologne Carnival: Wat dä Käu?The wagons themselves are still a secret, traction manager Alexander Dieper presented only a few designs: The fish Nemo suffering from plastic waste, father Rhine under water scarcity, the animals in the Hambach forest under the political hiccups - and the steamer SPD under the approaching collision with an iceberg called "Groko".
Many motives allude to global conflicts and crises. As a golfer US President Donald Trump beats off the climate agreement, the Iran deal and NATO. The yellow vests in France are trying to push President Emmanuel Macron off the pedestal. And a Belgian cook fries his fries over the fuel rods of the ailing nuclear power plant Tihange.
The motto of this year's Cologne Carnival Monday is "We Sproch es Heimat", translated means "Our language is home", that is the Cologne dialect meant.