Angela Merkel and Franz Josef Strauss have already sat on this "custodial bench": After a two-year Corona break, the court of fools in Stockach is meeting again. The defendant has yet to be announced - but one possible name can already be removed from the list.

Stockach (dpa / lsw) - After a two-year Corona break, the court of fools is to meet again for the first time in Stockach (Konstanz district). At their Epiphany meeting on January 6, the fools want to announce which prominent politician is sitting in the dock this time. "After two years of carnival abstinence, we are looking forward to 47 days of foolish goings-on in 2023," said judge Jürgen Koterzyna on Tuesday.

The more than 600-year-old "Hohe Grobfeine Narrengericht zu Stocken" is one of the highlights of the Swabian-Alemannic carnival in the south-west. Franz Josef Strauss (CSU), Angela Merkel (CDU) and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) have already sat in the "dock" of the institution. Most recently, Greens politician Cem Özdemir had to answer as a defendant. The "trial" always takes place on "Schmotzingen Dunschtig", i.e. the Thursday (February 16) before Shrove Monday.

Tübingen's re-elected Lord Mayor Boris Palmer has been invited not as the accused but as the guest of honor and speaker for the Epiphany meeting. In view of the many turbulences, the decision was made to go with a mainstream type "who is never offended or misunderstood," explained fool judge Koterzyna.