Cuts hurt Montreal's Greek consulate.

[bxlmontreal]

Montreal's Greek consulate has already felt the impact of the Greek government's austerity measures, but many in the city's 80 thousand-strong Greek community are more angry at the rioters in their homeland than they are about the cuts.

 

Hundreds of people rioted in the streets of Athens on the weekend, setting fires and looting stores, after the Greek parliament passed a new round of measures aimed at staving off bankruptcy.

 

Politicians voted to slash the country's minimum wage and axe one-in-five civil service jobs over the next three years.

 

Foreign consular offices have not been left unscathed.

 

"We have had cuts, yes," confirmed the Greek consul-general for Montreal, Thanos Kafopoulos. "But we still try to maintain service, and we are also trying to increase revenues."

 

Kafopoulos said many Greek expatriates living in Montreal own property and have investments in their native country - and they are divided over the solution.

 

"There is concern. There is sadness, and there is worry about the process that Greece is going through," he said.

 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/02/13/montreal-greeks-react.html