The President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, has cancelled a scheduled trip to Australia, that was months in the making.
According to sources both Australian and Greek government officials were in communication over the last few months organising the Greek President’s trip to Australia, which would have been the first Greek Head of State visit since that of the late Kostis Stefanopoulos in June 2002.
Official sources say that the Greek President has opted to postpone the trip to Australia for 2019 although there is mounting speculation that the cause for the change of plans was due to a potentially ‘hostile’ reception by Greek community organisations in Australia.
Specifically the Pan Macedonian Association of Melbourne and Victoria (PMAMV) sent a ‘warning’ letter to the President following the Greek government’s agreement with FYROM, stating that Mr Pavlopoulos was a ‘persona non gratta’.
“Mr Pavlopoulos you are unwanted; if you visit Melbourne, we the Greek diaspora officials will not welcome you,” stated their letter.
The President’s office made no mention of this and only stated that that change was due to his heavy schedule.