Former Belgian Prime Minister Jean‑Luc Dehaene (1940–2014) was known for his down‑to‑earth humour and his readiness to enjoy the cartoons and caricatures that portrayed him in the press. Even his memorial card featured a cartoon by Karl Meersman, originally published during the Dioxin Crisis, announcing “the EI‑nd”. Over the years, cartoonists depicted him as a rooster, a cook, a scout, a guide, a plumber, a butcher, a Club Brugge supporter or even a Brabant draft horse.
“I kept every caricature ever made of me. A wonderful collection,” he once said. And indeed, from 1981 to 1999 he preserved thousands of press clippings, now housed in the KADOC archives.
But over the years, Dehaene also gathered a substantial number of original cartoons and caricatures.
When he was preparing to move from his house to a new apartment, he called us with a simple question: would the ECC be interested in the original cartoons and caricatures from his private collection? It was a generous and unexpected offer — one for which we, as a cartoon centre, remain deeply grateful.
Since then, this work by GAL, together with other original cartoons, has become part of the ECC’s permanent collection.