Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos is not coming to Australia this year. This was confirmed by the Greek Embassy in Canberra, which stated that President Pavlopoulos’ heavy schedule would not allow for a visit to occur in September.

The President of the Hellenic Republic informed the Australian Embassy in Athens that Mr Pavlopoulos would wish to make a trip to the Antipodes, sometime within 2019, although it is unclear how this would be possible, given that 2019 is an election year for both Australia and Greece (which is facing a double election process, along with the one for the European Parliament).

News for an impending visit by the Greek President had caused an uproar within the Greek Australian community, with the Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne and Victoria (PMAMV) drafting a letter of complaint, stating that Mr Pavlopoulos is ‘persona non gratta’: “Mr Pavlopoulos you are unwanted; if you visit Melbourne, we the Greek diaspora officials will not welcome you,” was the message sent by the PMAMV, after the Greece-FYROM agreement on the latter’s constitutional name.

Source: neoskosmos