Under the title Europe’s Moment of Truth, in his New York Times column, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman argued that it has been an act of monstrous folly on the part of the creditor governments and institutions to push the Greek government to this point, and that he can’t blame the Greek Prime Minister at all for turning to the voters, instead of turning on them. He added that, in his opinion, if the Greek government wins the referendum, "it will be empowered by democratic legitimacy, which still, I think, matters in Europe. (And if it doesn’t, we need to know that, too)."

In the The Guardian, Zoe Williams notes in her article The moral crusade against Greece must be opposed that as it became clear that the troika’s programme did not restore growth to Greece, the creditors’ line of argument changed: their narrative presented Greeks as morally weaker than the creditors, thus advocating their collective punishment. Williams concludes that although the euro was founded on the idea that control of the single currency was apolitical, negotiations with Greece showed that this has been proved to be a myth, which has taken democracy down with it; in the euro system the strongest takes control.

In his article A democratic Europe should allow Greek people to decide on their future, at the Brussels based Think Tank Bruegel, Zsolt Darvas argues that the Heads of States and Governments of euro-area countries should extend the current bail-out deal a few days after the referendum. "A democratic Europe should allow Greek people to have their say on such a historical question." He added that the ECB should not reduce liquidity assistance to Greek banks. He also argued that creditors should lower the planned fiscal adjustment requirements, as Greece has implemented by far the largest fiscal adjustment in the EU.