Serbs in Thessaloniki travel to Athens in pajamas to vote, protesting the lack of a polling station

Some Serbs living in northern Greece have decided to express their opposition in an unusual way during Serbia’s snap parliamentary elections.

In recent hours, they have announced that they will go to vote wearing pajamas because no polling station was opened at the Serbian Consulate in Thessaloniki. The Serbian community says a lack of funding was cited as the reason.

About 2,000 Serbs live in Thessaloniki, and some have coordinated through social media to travel together to Athens, where they will be able to exercise their right to vote.

Traveling in pajamas will serve as a symbolic protest and a show of solidarity with Serbs in the diaspora in the United States, Canada and Brazil. Because of the time difference, voters in those countries sometimes have to vote at night. The news was first reported by the Greek state news agency ANA and was later picked up by other media outlets.

Serbs in northern Greece recall that voting in Thessaloniki was possible under normal conditions in previous elections and are calling for that option to be restored.

Meanwhile, ahead of the elections, Serbian communities in various countries are organizing long journeys to polling stations. Diaspora voting is thus also becoming a matter of logistics and electoral rights.