Friday was “clash of the referenda” day, as former French president Nicolas Sarkozy first tweeted his support for such a referendum by the embattled Greek government — only to be quickly followed by a “tongue-in-cheek” response by former Greek PM George Papandreou.

Papandreou’s purported proposal in late October 2011 for a referendum — probably on the question of remaining in the eurozone with commensurate austerity measures — reportedly elicited an livid reaction by Sarkozy and shock on the part of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then EC Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.

“The only way for us to again bring credibility to public debate is to not be afraid of the people’s expression,” “Sarko” wrote, in French, on his personal account.

He immediately added:

“It would be a mistake to not use the referendum. The referendum is one of our priorities.”

A short time later, Papandreou responded on his account:

He also included a link to a report by FT’s Peter Spiegel, who wrote about the behind-the-scenes developments at the Cannes 2011 Summit, where Papandreou was “politically mauled” when he brought up the idea.