Romania is the latest country to join a supermarket that has gained traction across the Balkans, with far-right ultranationalist Călin Georgescu calling on his supporters to join the initiative.
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00:00Romania is the latest country to join a supermarket boycott that has spread across the Balkans.
00:09The movement started in Croatia to protest rising grocery prices and a worsening cost
00:14of living crisis.
00:17In Romania, the far-right pro-Russian presidential candidate Kalin Dzerzhescu took to social
00:22media to urge his supporters to join the boycott.
00:26He accused foreign-owned supermarkets of not selling Romanian products and eliminating
00:30cashier jobs by introducing self-checkout lanes.
00:34But others also criticized the boycott.
00:37Romania's Minister for Agriculture warned the boycott could actually harm Romanian producers.
00:42If we are talking about local producers and we have to integrate them into retail stores,
00:47we have to talk about quantity.
00:49That is why we, the Ministry of Agriculture, have always encouraged cooperation to be able
00:55to improve the quality of retail and to negotiate so that these Romanian products, made through
01:01cooperation, are sold in retail stores.
01:04While supermarket prices are still a concern for many Romanians, some people have also
01:09started a counter-boycott, calling on people to support Romanian brands at their local
01:13supermarkets on Monday.