Tellingly, when George Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister at the time, proposed a referendum on the existing adjustment program and his country’s continued eurozone membership in 2011, he was warned off in no uncertain terms by France’s then-President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Though Papandreou would have campaigned for the adjustment program and the euro, a referendum was a risk that his European partners were unwilling to take.
最能说明问题的是，当时任希腊总理帕潘德里欧（George Papandreou）在2011年提出就现有调整计划以及希腊欧元区成员资格进行全民公投的时候，时任法国总统萨科齐（Nicolas Sarkozy）和德国总理默克尔断然警告他不要这样做。尽管帕潘德里欧支持调整计划和欧元，但公投是其欧洲伙伴国不愿承担的风险。