Düsseldorf carnival parade pulls no punches

Volkwagen's role in the "Dieselgate" emissions scandal is satirized on this float. Despite what looks like a catastrophe, however, the carmaker still managed to achieve record sales in Germany in 2017.

The Rhineland in Germany is famous for its anti-authoritarianism. So these two political figures are perhaps obvious targets: the leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) in Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is bearing a sickle with the word "dictatorships," and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban with a hammer, set to smash legal rights.

As was well to be expected, US President Donald Trump provided German float-makers with plenty of material. Here, he is seen in a compromising pose with a Russian bear seemingly in full control.

Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who looks to have been one of the big losers as Germany tries to establish a coalition government, cut a very unhappy figure at the Düsseldorf parade. But the makers of this float think it is all his own fault, according to the pun written on the grinder.

Not all topics were treated with irreverence: Here, the European Union comes in for criticism for its treatment of refugees, such as returning migrants to camps in Libya, where an uncertain fate awaits them.

British Prime Minister Theresa May gives birth to a doubtful offspring on this float. Many in Germany view Britain's decision to leave the European Union with dismay.

Chancellor Angela Merkel could not escape her share of satire. A gruesome depiction of the German leader as a black widow spider hovers over the skulls of those some consider as her political victims.