Costumed revellers vote in Germany as election and Carnival coincide

Costumed revellers in the northern German town of Damme spent Sunday celebrating Carnival while also heading to the polls in the country’s parliamentary election.

The rare early vote in Germany means that Carnival season and the election campaign have collided, with Damme’s traditional Carnival parade rolling through town on the same day as citizens are called to the polls.

Revellers cast their votes while dressed in costume as dinosaurs, traffic cones or Elvis Presley, an unusual scene that caused a few laughs at Damme’s polling station. The Carnival parade is a major event in Damme, with about 9,000 people – roughly half the town’s population – taking part.

Elections for Germany’s Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, are normally held in September but were moved forward this year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed in November.

In Damme, the street carnival is traditionally celebrated a week before the peak of the Carnival season, which wraps up just before the start of Lent, the Christian period of fasting and prayer that precedes Easter.

“It’s not that we would have wished for this clash of dates,” Damme’s mayor, Mike Otte, said.