Cover image via Ireen Oostveen/YouTube
On Monday, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, was on his way to the coalition council in the Hague when he dropped his coffee while entering a building
Image via Ireen Oostveen/YouTube
What he did next is a lesson in humility
In a video taken by NOS, a public broadcasting organisation from the Netherlands, the Dutch Prime Minister is seen not just stopping to pick up the cup but also, in a bid to clean up his mess, he reaches for a mop — and cleans it up himself.
YES, the head of a major European government actually cleaned up after his own mistake, without waiting for the Parliament's cleaning staff to get going.
Image via Ireen Oostveen/YouTube
And Rutte did so while being cheered on by the building's uniformed cleaning staff who stood next to him
Image via Ireen Oostveen/YouTube
The above sight of cleaning ladies, standing next to their prime minister, while he cleans up his own mess, is best described by a Dutch journalist with the NRC Handelsblad
The NRC Handelsblad journalist, Emilie van Outeren, who suggested that what was so special was not Rutte's reaction, but that of the cleaners, asking on Twitter: "In what country is there so little hierarchy that the cleaning ladies dare to react like that?"
While the prime minister did need a bit of help from one of the cleaning staff with his mop adjustment…
Image via Ireen Oostveen/YouTube
…he made sure to get every drop of the spilled coffee
Image via Ireen Oostveen/YouTube
