Everyone gets their comeuppance

City Prince Heinz-Josef I Mollemeier, together with his courtiers Bernd and Thomas, the City Council, the Prinzengarde and the presidents of the umbrella organisation, welcomed the political groups, the administrative board and other illustrious guests to the colourfully decorated VHS auditorium. President Egbert Wißling hilariously hosted the programme.

The carnival speakers had the laughs on their side. And there were plenty of them. Even though everyone was put through the wringer and had their fair share of laughs, the swaying and singing was unanimous and harmonious.

Mayor Michael Gerdhenrich kicked things off and even announced a new programme when welcoming CDU member of state parliament Markus Höner: Farmer seeks traffic jam. He welcomed our city's porters - "one slower than the other" - and put forward "heretical theses".

The "Olaf from the district building", alias District Administrator Dr Olaf Gericke, already sees the fully-rained A2 motorway as a waterway that is ready faster than the WLE route. And he marvelled: "It's unbelievable what you cement guys can do."

Andreas Kühnel (CDU) argued in favour of a break between the Prunksitzung and Ash Wednesday and put it to the vote. All hands went up. He quickly rewrote the Erlkönig into the "Bahnhofskönig": "and don't you see there ... the ruins of the railway station in a gloomy place?" But all will be well in the summer when "der Höhner" plays with the whole family at the anniversary festival.

Right on time at 11:11 a.m., the colourful crowd of fools was live on the radio show with Flix and Flax, alias Felix Brinkmann and Felix Markmeier-Agnesens: Radio Kocholores is back, they declared for the SPD. Their demand: A BExit is needed. Beckum leaves the district of Warendorf and introduces the BE-Mark. And "climate glue Braunert" hadn't even realised that no trees were being felled on the church square. He should be picked up there in his SUV.

Ute Zeyn and Karin Burtzlaff served up 7 carnival pranks to save money for the Greens. The prince should give one of his companies to the town and a street would be named after him in return. In addition, the Neubeckum railway station could be abandoned and the building demolished, which would save a lot of money and create space for a pump track. This way, the city would not have to raise taxes.

Gregor Stöppel from the FWG is already getting a headache from reading the flood of amendments to the budget. He also puts this and that to the vote, which the audience acknowledges with the waving of carnival flags. Josef Schumacher (CDU) should go to Berlin to breathe more emotion into the "Bundes-Olaf".

Petra Hille and Timo Przybylak scrutinised the SPD's "half-time result" and realised that the 12th player was missing. Afterwards, the dance group "Here we go" under the direction of Elisabeth Rudek created quite a stir and skilfully danced the guard dance. In the background, Timo Przybylak also tried his hand at the choreography to great applause.

Speaking of which: the city elf council from the KG "Uns geht die Sonne nicht unter" had to perform their elf council song and dance twice because the lively audience demanded an encore. Everyone agreed that the Prince had done a really good job!