Old video of Dutch PM mopping floor falsely portrayed as from G20 summit in India

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 22, 2023 at 08:17
2 min read
By Uzair RIZVI, AFP India

As India hosted the G20 summit in September, an old clip of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte spilling coffee and mopping the floor resurfaced on social media with the false claim the mishap happened at the conference. The video is from 2018 and was filmed at a government building in the Netherlands.

The video was posted on September 12 on X, formerly known as Twitter with the caption: "@markrutte (the Netherlands PM) accidentally dropped a cup of tea in India's G20. Watch what happened next."

The clip shows Rutte spilling his drink while entering a building. He is then shown wiping the floor while being cheered by cleaners who appear to jokingly teach him how to use the mop.

A screenshot of the false post, captured on September 14, 2023

Rutte attended the G20 summit hosted by India in its capital New Delhi on September 9 to 10, 2023.

Similar Facebook posts here and here have also falsely linked his video to the summit.

Old incident

However, a reverse search of keyframes on Google found the video earlier published here on the official YouTube channel of Euronews on June 5, 2018 (archived link).

Its title reads: "Watch: Dutch PM Rutte applauded after clearing up own coffee spill."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video shared in one of the false posts (left) and the Euronews video (right):

Video in the false posts (left) and the Euronews video (right)

Multiple news media reported the incident in 2018, including the The Washington Post newspaper which said it happened in a government building in the Netherlands (archived link).

"Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was walking into the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport building in The Hague on Monday when he dropped coffee. In a bid to clean up his mess, the head of a major European government reached for a mop -- and started swiping at the spill," the report says.

The conversations heard in the video is in Dutch.

At one point Rutte could be heard saying, "That was three euros" about his wasted coffee. Later someone jokingly asks, "Any more substantial questions?"

Indian news organisations here and here also reported the mishap at the time, saying it prompted discussions on Indian social media about what local politicians would have done if it happened to them (archived links here and here).

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