Anti-Brexit ranters responded with glee to a surreal papier-mache carnival float depicting British Prime Minister Theresa May holding a deformed baby this week, despite the PM having gone on record just last year about the pain being unable to have children had caused her and her husband.
The grotesque carnival float was created and displayed as part of Düsseldorf’s traditional Rose Monday celebrations, part of the run-up to Lent, in which locals lampoon global and local political figures.
Many other politicians and public figures were lampooned in the floats. Depicted here is hapless German politician Martin Schulz, who left his positon at the European Union last year to move into German politics, becoming the leader of Germany’s Social Democrats. After less than three days as Germany’s foreign minister he resigned, citing difficulties within his own party and then resigned as leader several days later / AP Photo/Martin Meissner
The depiction comes less than a year after May and her husband of 36 years Philip went public about the heartbreak they suffered trying to have children, ultimately having to “accept the hand they were dealt” and give up on starting a family of their own.
Yet British left-wingers turned nasty in their celebratory comments about the float, which depicts Theresa May on a hospital bed holding a deformed newborn labelled ‘Brexit’, with the umbilical cord still attached. One Twitter user wrote: “A deluded May has given birth to a pathetic, over optimistic, idiotic abomination”, while another who described themselves as “pro EU” wrote “What a brilliant German carnival float” with a laughing emoji.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has gone on record as saying he sees himself as an aloof, God-like leader of his nation is depicted in a Napoleonic mode in this float / AP Photo/Martin Meissner
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, presently hanging onto her political existence following a poor General election performance and protracted coalition negotiations is depicted as a black widow spider, standing over the bones of her former political allies / AP IMAGES
Another mean-spirited commentator said of the float: “The best was the one with May giving birth to the monster that is Brexit. I think the Germans are enjoying Brexit. Can’t blame them: we are a laughing stock all over the world.”
Other Twitter users were more understanding, however. University of London Goldsmiths lecturer David Hirsh, who published a book in 2017 exposing anti-Semitism in left-wing politics, called the remarks “vile”, pointing out May’s own hurt at having been unable to have children and that it was insulting against those who were themselves born disabled.
Hungary’s Viktor Orban with Poland’s former Prime Minister, and present leader of ruling party Law and Order Jarosław Kaczyński are depicted in this very German take on contemporary politics in former Communist nations. The words on the crossed hammer and sickle reads “right dictatorship” / AP IMAGES
Breitbart London reported on the Rose Monday floats in Cologne in 2017, when similar displays again controversially illustrated the political matters of the day, including models of Theresa May shooting herself in the head, comparisons of right-wing populists to Adolph Hitler, and one of President Trump having sex with the Statue of Liberty.