The leftist government took an unprecedented decision on Friday and demanded that the country’s overseas diplomatic missions turn over all available cash reserves to the state.

Such an act is unprecedented in recent memory, and simply aggravated concerns that the country is headed towards a fiscal dead-end.

Based on a document revealed by protothema.gr, the country’s diplomatic missions abroad (embassies, consulates, representations etc.) are forced to return all available funds, as well as all proceeds from consular acts (visa issuances etc).

Foreign ministry sources state that embassies may now become non-operational in many countries, since the money was meant to ensure the operation of the embassies and consulatse.

The first reactions weren’t late in coming, with the centrist Potami party issuing an acerbic statement a little later:

“We’d like to only remind the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks partners that they aren’t innovating. Embassies were relieved of their funds and, in the end, abolished completely during the reign of Othon (Otto), in the spring of 1843. Shortly thereafter, the Greek state declared one of its first payment stops. We at least hoep that the current government doesn’t have the same thing in store for us,” was the Potami (River) reaction.

Othon or Otto was a Bavarian prince who was appointed by the Great Powers of the time as the first modern monarch of the modern Greek state in 1832 under the Convention of London.