OPPOSITION:RISING PASSIONS in the Netherlands over the Greek rescue package will come to a head next week at an emergency session of parliament, which is to reconvene to question the deal agreed in Brussels last month.

Polls show the Dutch public firmly opposed to further aid for Greece or more contributions to the European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund.

With a parliamentary vote on the Greek rescue scheduled for September, parties who backed euro-zone aid are becoming increasingly uncertain.

“My basic sense is that there is still a majority for the rescue package,” Wouter Koolmees, of the left-liberal opposition D66 party, told the Financial Times.

“But there’s a huge pile of irritation, especially among the opposition parties that have supported it, over the way the government has presented things,” he also told the newspaper.

Critics say the government has misleadingly played down the consequences of rescue packages for the Dutch taxpayer.

Immediately after the euro-zone summit, Mark Rutte, the prime minister, said the initial €109 billion portion of the Greek deal included €50 billion in so-called “private-sector involvement”, or markdowns and extensions on Greek debt held by private creditors.

But the claim was incorrect – the €50 billion in private-sector involvement was separate and additional to the €109 billion, as the finance ministry later acknowledged.

The Dutch, along with the Germans, had pressed hard in Brussels for a high level of private-sector involvement to assuage taxpayers and it was widely felt Mr Rutte had tried to paint too rosy a picture of the deal.

That provoked the ire of opposition parties, whose support the government needs over the Greek rescue. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)