Dusseldorf holds delayed Rose Monday parade

Five weeks after stormy weather prompted the cancellation of Dusseldorf’s traditional Rose Monday parade, the city’s residents are finally getting the procession they planned – this time on a Sunday.The parade of decorated floats began at 11.30am (1030 GMT) under a blue sky as costumed revellers – known as jesters – sang and danced their way along a 5km stretch into the centre of the western German city.The postponed parade got off to a quiet start, with one police spokesman saying: “It’s different than usual.”Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands were expected to celebrate the long-standing tradition in the area around the parade, with 1,000 police officers on duty to oversee the event.The city’s Carnival committee was expecting more than 500,000 people to join the celebrations.For centuries, Carnival celebrations in Germany’s Rhineland and elsewhere in the country have been an opportunity to take aim at politicians and other powers that be in the form of papier mache floats.Despite the postponements, the array of political caricatures on display in Dusseldorf retained their topicality.One float poked fun at Donald Trump, as controversy mounts over the US Republican front-runner’s increasingly fiery rhetoric.Another float showed a model of Chancellor Angela Merkel carrying a crucifix bearing the words “humane refugee policy”.Merkel has been feeling the pressure on her migration policy recently, as critics both at home and abroad say her open-borders approach is misguided in the face of migration levels not seen in Europe since World War II.Dusseldorf, Mainz and Essen were among several German cities to call off their Rose Monday parades because of a looming storm.The procession in Cologne – Germany’s largest – went ahead on February 8 but was downscaled because of weather warnings.The delay means the parades, which are supposed to precede the Christian calendar’s Lent fasting season, now take place during the six-week stretch to Easter when people traditionally give up pleasures, such as drinking alcohol.