That arrangement was proposed by then-ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, in clear breach of the Maastricht Treaty’s no-bailout rule, which had been Germany’s fundamental condition for giving up the Deutschmark. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to leave the euro (as Spain’s former prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, later revealed to the newspaper El País) unless Germany signed on to the bailout agreement.