The emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta released by WikiLeaks Friday revealed that U.S. President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton sought to influence Greece to accept the harsh austerity terms imposed by the European Union in 2015, the Russian news agency RT reports.
Back in 2015 Podesta emailed to Bill Clinton’s office asking him to pressure Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras into accepting the European Union’s debt deal.
“I’m on a train and hard to talk by phone. White House asked me whether WJC (William Jefferson "Bill Clinton) had enough of a relationship with PM Tsipras to call him and counsel him to make a deal. Can you ask him whether that’s in the realm of possibility,” one email says.
"He says yes, but he’d need a lot more info than he has now. His immediate question is – are we pushing Merkle too? What time will you be available to talk?," Clinton’s chief of staff Tina Flournoy responded with a typo in the German Chancellor's last name.
During the same time Bill Clinton’s foreign policy adviser emailed Obama’s chief of staff following the conversation with Clinton about Tsipras, and in that conversation the Clinton team assures they will have the support of Angela Merkel.
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Greeks rejected the austerity reforms demanded by European lenders in a referendum back in 2015, but Tsipras signed it anyway as the prime minister agreed to taxes increases and public sector cuts.
Since then a total of 15 reforms requested by the international lenders – the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund – have been imposed in the debt-ridden country including privatization plans, so as to unblock much needed bailout funds.
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