Pefkohori Police Remove License Plates From Serbian Cars
Tourists say Greek traffic police in Pefkohori on Kassandra are fining almost exclusively cars with Serbian plates, while vehicles with Greek plates go unpunished.
Serbian tourists currently staying in Pefkohori, on the Kassandra peninsula, one of the resorts where the largest share of guests comes from Serbia, are complaining about a local traffic police operation that, they say, fines almost exclusively cars with Serbian license plates. The complaints are landing just as the August holiday turnover nears its end and large numbers of Serbian travelers prepare to head home, which means the reports of selective policing hit directly at families who are either already on the road or about to start their return trip in the coming days.
According to posts in the Facebook group “Greece Info,” traffic officers on the streets leading to the beach in Pefkohori have for days been writing tickets and removing front license plates from parked cars. Tourists say the targets are almost exclusively vehicles with Serbian plates, while cars with Greek plates, according to the same sources, go unpunished even when parked where it is not allowed. Telegraf and Espreso picked up the posts on August 26, and Greek police have so far issued no confirmation or statement about this specific operation.
One incident in particular drew anger: a car with Greek plates parked on a stretch of beach where parking is strictly forbidden. Four officers first wrote up a ticket, then walked away from the scene to get a drink at a nearby cafe. Not long after, one of the officers, according to eyewitnesses, walked back to the car with a smile, took the ticket off the windshield, and went back into the same cafe. At the same time, tourists say, officers on the opposite, legal side of the street were having cars with Serbian plates removed, while the abandoned Greek car kept blocking traffic and delivery trucks.
How much is a parking fine in Greece?
A parking fine in Greece runs between 40 and 80 euros and can be paid at any post office, regardless of where the violation happened. The trouble starts when police remove the plates over a weekend: payment is not possible until the next business day, which in practice extends a traveler’s stay, adding the cost of extra lodging and eating into time that was supposed to be the last before heading home. For tourists who had already planned their return to Serbia, that can mean rebooking a ferry or bus ticket, on top of the cost of the fine itself.
Kassandra is one of the most visited destinations for Serbian tourists in northern Greece, and Pefkohori draws a large number of guests from Serbia every summer. The tourists who shared their experiences in the “Greece Info” group insist the difference in treatment between local and foreign plates was visible on the spot, in front of witnesses, and not a matter of impression or a one-off misunderstanding with a single officer. No Greek institution has commented so far, either on the scale of the operation or on the claims of selective enforcement.
With no official response so far, the only account available for now is what the tourists themselves are reporting from the ground, and they are warning fellow Serbians to be especially careful about parking in Pefkohori and other towns on Kassandra, even in spots that carry no explicit no-parking sign. For those still setting off for this part of Halkidiki in the final days of the August season, the message from the “Greece Info” group is blunt: better to look for a marked parking lot than risk a removed plate and an extended stay that was never part of the plan.
