Brussels - A Greek prime minister torn between accepting harsh bailout terms and a rebellion by the left wing of his party decides to call a referendum to break the political deadlock.
No, not 2015 but 2011.
Four years ago, George Papandreou, fearing the loss of his socialist PASOK party's parliamentary majority, stunned his EU partners by announcing his intention to put austerity measures demanded by international creditors to a popular vote.
Back then, European leaders browbeat Papandreou into backtracking rather than stake the future of the single currency on the will of angry Greek voters.
The prime minister reversed his decision and was swiftly toppled. No referendum was held.
Today, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has responded to similar circumstances with a similar proposal for a referendum.
But this time around, with the euro zone in less jeopardy from contagion than it was four years ago, European leaders may be prepared to let Greeks vote and face the consequences.
In 2011, global financial markets were in turmoil with many doubting the survival of the euro single currency.
Ireland and Portugal had joined Greece in seeking financial rescue, and bond markets were driving up the cost of borrowing for Italy and Spain.
Amid fears for the stability of the global financial system, Papandreou was summoned to Cannes, France, on the eve of a G20 summit by then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Rain beat down on the hulking grey concrete Palace of Festivals on the Riviera sea-front, where film stars and models strut their stuff on a giant red-carpeted staircase every May at the world's biggest film festival.
Inside, the euro zone's leadership duo, working so closely in tandem that they had gained the joint nickname “Merkozy”, cornered Papandreou at a meeting with the heads of the European Union institutions and the International Monetary Fund.
They told him bluntly that any referendum would have to be about whether or not Greece wanted to stay in the euro zone.
They complained that he had sat for two days with them at an EU summit that approved a 172 billion euro bailout plan, including a big write-off of private debt, the previous week without saying a word of his intention to call a vote, which sent markets into a panic.
Alarmed at the prospect of a month-long referendum campaign that would cause worse financial turmoil, they pushed him to drop the plebiscite.
Then European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged the Greeks to try instead to form a national unity government to implement the bailout terms.
Papandreou did not survive the political humiliation.
While he and his Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos were flying back to Athens, Venizelos issued a statement criticising the referendum proposal. It was dead.
Within a week, Papandreou had resigned as prime minister. Venezelos replaced him as PASOK leader, and former central bank governor Lucas Papademos, an unelected economist, was appointed prime minister to implement the austerity programme.
Papademos formed a cabinet of non-party technocrats and members of both main political parties that lasted only six months.
It took two general elections in the first half of 2012 to elect a stable government led by the conservative New Democracy party. PASOK, a dominant force in Greek politics for generations, was reduced to a small junior partner.
An upstart far-left anti-austerity party, Syriza, led by charismatic young firebrand orator Alexis Tsipras, very nearly topped the poll, spooking markets and prompting EU governments to warn of chaos and a possible Greek exit from the euro if he won.
Fast forward to 2015 when Syriza finally won power in January. With bond investors now viewing Greece's problems as confined to Greece, the victory caused barely a ripple on world markets, just a fall in Greek stocks and bonds.
After months of confrontational negotiations, the leftist premier announced early on Saturday morning that he would put creditors' demands to the public. Unlike Papandreou, who would have asked Greeks to back the offer on the table, Tsipras told voters he wants them to oppose it.
That has left him with few friends in Europe, even among previously sympathetic voices.
“I think it's right to ask the people their opinion. But that only works if the head of government lives up to his responsibilities to lead,” said Martin Schulz, the German Social Democrat speaker of the European parliament, who has long urged EU leaders to give Tsipras a fair hearing.
“And that means: to recommend to the people that the accommodating offer made by the lenders and euro partners be accepted.”
Reuters