Anti-Brexit float heads to German carnival

The eye-catching emblem was one of a number of satirical displays at the event by Jacques Tilly, a German sculptor considered the country’s premier carnival float designer.

“Some of the floats always satirise topical political events. This year they included climate change protests, Putin and our very own ‘Miss Brexit 2023’,” said Kate Hobbs, one of the EU Flag Mafia team.

“Jacques invited us to walk with Miss Brexit.

“There were five of us, one dressed as a Boris Johnson clown bearing a placard, which on one side said ‘Gefeitert [partied] in Clowning Street’ and on the other ‘Gefeuert aus [sacked from] Clowning Street’.

“The other four of us wore Union Jack jackets over Rejoin EU t-shirts, plus stereotypically British bowler hats and umbrellas.”

Germany’s annual carnivals, of which Düsseldorf’s is one of the biggest, traditionally feature floats satirising current political topics, often designed by Tilly.

Other displays at this year’s event mocked the perceived inadequacy of Germany’s military equipment, the u-turns of Green vice-chancellor Robert Habeck, Düsseldorf council’s financial support for a planned Evangelical Church Congress in 2027 and Rainer Woelki, a cardinal under fire for his mishandling of child sexual abuse cases in Germany.

In its coverage, the public service broadcaster said of the Miss Brexit float: “The economy is on the wane, [there are] many political and social problems – but Miss Brexit still finds itself sexy. In other words, Brexit still has many supporters in Great Britain – although it is almost skeletonised.”