The euro crisis could well spell the end for Berlusconi but the Dutch are delving into the credit crisis instead. The Srebrenica massacre comes back to haunt a Dutch commander. Are men too cool to be teachers? And please remember not to blow your own trumpet too loudly in Holland.

Is this the end for Berlusconi?
Could the euro crisis bring down Italy’s ultimate political survivor Silvio Berlusconi? De Telegraaf leads with “Berulsconi under fire” but reckons the Italian prime minister will “fight till his last breath”, even though “speculators are setting their sights on Italy” and “interest on government bonds has hit a record high”.

Trouw goes with “Berlusconi’s days seem numbered” alongside a photo that makes the beleaguered leader look like a waxwork. The paper reports that “the Italian PM is rapidly losing support” as allies defect to the opposition “like rats leaving a sinking ship”.

NRC.next reports that Berlusconi continues to “sputter away on Facebook”, denying all rumours of his imminent resignation. The paper quotes him as saying “If I have to capitulate, I will do so in parliament with my head held high, looking the traitors in the eye.”

That moment may come during today’s crucial vote in the Italian parliament. De Volkskrant reports that “Berlusconi’s government is hanging by a thread” but goes on to warn that “with or without Berlusconi [...] it will take a lot of time and concerted effort on behalf of the Italian government to win back trust.”

Crisis ... which crisis?
While the euro crisis rages all around, the Dutch have just launched a parliamentary inquiry into the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. De Volkskrant’s columnist notes sagely “you can’t separate one crisis from the other, but it’s human nature to give disastrous dossiers a start and a finish, stick a label on them and bury them deep in a desk drawer. It keeps life manageable, so we can plunge headlong into the next crisis with vim and vigour.”

But hang on just a minute, exclaims nrc.next, haven’t we done all this already? Well, yes and no. A previous investigation into the financial crisis did result in a report and recommendations that were unanimously embraced by parliament. But there remained “a nagging feeling that some of the key players during the crisis got off too lightly”. So now we have a full-blown parliamentary inquiry with the power to subpoena witnesses and hear them under oath.

It’s all with a view to learning lessons to help us cope with future crises ... or present ones, for that matter. Let’s hope the powers that be are quick learners. De Volkskrant’s cartoonist depicts the committee members up to their eyeballs in water, while the chairman asks a witness to explain why we all nearly went under.

Srebrenica returns to haunt Karremans
The massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys from the ‘UN-protected’ enclave of Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia continues to cast a dark shadow over the Netherlands. The enclave was manned by Dutch UN troops who failed to avert what has gone down in history as the most heinous war crime committed since World War II.

Dutch commander Thom Karremans came in for all kinds of criticism at the time but told a parliamentary inquiry he did not know what was going to happen to the men and boys when they were handed over to the Bosnian Serbs who later massacred them. AD’s headline levels the accusation: “Karremans lied”.

The paper reports that the Dutch commander has tried to block the broadcast of a TV programme in which a former colleague claims that Karremans committed perjury, since he had said at the time that “things would not end well” for the Muslims. A military historian argues that the entire Dutch contingent knew the Muslims would be murdered.

The paper recalls the Bosnian Serbs separating the Muslim men from the women and taking them away as Dutch soldiers looked on: “one of the most controversial moments in the deeply painful memory of the fall of Srebrenica”. Tomorrow’s broadcast indeed looks set to reopen plenty of old wounds, especially for Thom Karremans.

Male teachers: too cool for school?
Trouw and de Volkskrant report on a concerted effort to attract more men to primary school teaching. De Volkskrant profiles Ad and Jordy, two men “working in a women’s world where only 15 percent of teachers are male”. The government is concerned that this is not an accurate reflection of society and that the kids are missing out on male role models. “At this school we barely have enough men for a good game of cards.”

Trouw follows the fortunes of teachers-in-training Leroy and Rami. Armed with guitar and beanie hat, they’re surrounded by five-year-olds and on a mission to prove that “being a schoolmaster can be cool”. Their supervisor explains “guys often think teaching is little more than being a high-class babysitter – that’s just not true.” Leroy does his best to sum up the joys of the job: “In the morning the kids don’t understand something and by the afternoon they do. And that’s what you’ve taught them.” Sounds pretty cool to me.

Rising star and forgotten astronaut
Today’s AD presents two perfect illustrations of the Netherlands’ insistence that you should be careful not to get ideas above your station.

First up we have Christopher Max, an American contestant on Dutch talent show The Voice of Holland who has incurred the wrath of the viewing public. His crime? Ironically in a show that’s all about becoming famous, he’s been acting too much like a star ... and that simply won’t do. “Welcome to the Netherlands, Christopher!” says the paper. “The country where you shouldn’t get yourself noticed or take things too far.”

He shares the page with a fellow who seems to have turned being unassuming into a fine art: Lodewijk van de Berg, “the Netherlands forgotten astronaut.” Perhaps his low profile in the Netherlands has something to do with him becoming a US citizen before he went into space. “I’m not the type of guy to go around blowing my own trumpet about being a great astronaut,” he says despite having orbited the Earth 110 times in the Space Shuttle back in 1985, ahead of his more famous counterparts Wubbo Ockels and André Kuipers.

“I’m not jealous of the attention they get,” he shrugs. “We always have a nice chat when we bump into one another. Not about space travel but just about how things are with the wife and kids.”