Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Cologne on Sunday for the climax of the city’s two-week Pride festival, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ events. Police said about 60,000 participants and 90 floats set off from the Deutzer Bridge under the slogan “Für Queerrechte. Viele. Gemeinsam. Stark!” while organisers expected the wider programme to draw roughly 1.1 million visitors. The march, attended by Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker, Federal Labour Minister Bärbel Bas and other national politicians, proceeded peacefully amid an expanded police presence prompted by a rise in anti-queer incidents across Germany. This year’s parade was held against a politically charged backdrop after Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended a decision not to fly the rainbow flag over the Bundestag, remarking that the parliament “is not a circus tent.” In response, the travelling Circus Charles Knie hoisted the flag above its big top in Bielefeld, saying the gesture was meant to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community and with Pride demonstrations nationwide. The Cologne festivities followed London’s Pride parade a day earlier, where more than 30,000 marchers from some 500 organisations—accompanied by over 500 floats—travelled from Hyde Park Corner to Whitehall. London Mayor Sadiq Khan hailed the capital as a “beacon of diversity,” and uniformed British Army cadets joined community groups in the procession watched by tens of thousands of spectators.