Vilvoorde (Brussels Morning newspaper) – JONG CD&V is auctioning Jean-Luc Dehaene’s 1995 cowboy hat for the Warmest Week in Vilvoorde. Chairman Bram Van Hecke calls it a unique collector’s item supporting charity for invisible illnesses.
As VRT News reported, a cowboy hat worn by former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene is being auctioned by JONG CD&V for Warmest Week in Vilvoorde. Young CD&V chairman Bram Van Hecke:
“We wanted to do something for the Warmest Week. And since there are some luminaries in CD&V, we asked them to donate a personal item. The son of the late Jean-Luc Dehaene was very enthusiastic about the idea. The hat was still in a closet somewhere, and he donated it to us.”
What will happen to Jean-Luc Dehaene’s 1995 Cowboy Hat auction?
Officials mentioned that the current young chairman of JONG CD&V has no personal memory of the 1995 incident but knows the story from past accounts. The auction allows collectors and the public to own a tangible piece of Belgian history.
“I was born the year Jean-Luc made his famous ride. But during a visit to Dallas, he was supposedly asked to climb on that bull. He put on a hat there, although I still don’t know where it came from, shouted Let the beast go, and sat on the rodeo bull. An iconic moment that everyone in Flanders who has ever read a newspaper or watched television remembers,”
Bram Van Hecke said.
“You can clearly see that Jean-Luc Dehaene once wore it.”
Bram Van Hecke, chairman of Young CD8V
JONG CD&V will auction the cowboy hat worn by former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene to support the Warmest Week, which highlights invisible illnesses. The auction starts on Monday, 8, 2025, on the Warmest Week website. The youth organisation hopes to raise as much money as possible.
According to Van Hecke,
“People can bid as much as they want. But if it stays under €200, I’ll bid myself. But I sincerely hope, because it’s for charity after all, that someone bids €1,000.”
Van Hecke said he has held the hat and even tried it on briefly,
“Because what’s more fun than receiving people in your living room, and being able to say that that hat once belonged to Jean-Luc Dehaene? I think this could be the ideal Christmas gift.”
In 1995, former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene visited Dallas, Texas, on an economic mission to promote Belgian business. During the trip, he dressed as a cowboy and climbed onto a mechanical bull, shouting the famous words:
“Let the beast go.”
The event became a memorable and playful moment in Belgian politics. The cowboy hat he wore has been preserved and is now being auctioned.
