Romania’s Georgescu calls on supporters to join supermarket boycott

A supermarket boycott that was started in Croatia last month has now reached Romania.

The movement, which quickly caught on across the Balkans, began as a protest against rising grocery prices and a deepening cost of living crisis.

In Romania, the far-right ultranationalist presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, who ran as an independent in the cancelled election that took place last year, has taken to social media in support of the boycott, urging his supporters to join the initiative.

In a social media post, Georgescu accused foreign-owned supermarkets and hypermarkets of not selling Romanian products and eliminating cashier jobs by introducing self-checkout counters.

Other right-wing politicians, including George Simion, also voiced support for the initiative. Simion said he was joining the boycott in support of Romanians “who say ‘Enough!’ to the abuses of the big hypermarket chains that are making a mockery of this country.”

Not all Romanians have taken well to the boycott, however. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and Minister of Agriculture Florin Barbu both said the boycott could actually end up harming Romanian producers.

Barbu said a week-long boycott could lead to problems integrating local producers into large retail stores. “If we are talking about local producers and we have to integrate them in retail shops, we have to talk about quantities,” he said, adding that “this is why we, the Ministry of Agriculture, have always encouraged co-operation.”

While many Romanians struggle with supermarket prices, a counter-boycott in support of supermarkets has also gained traction on social media, which called on people to support Romanian brands in their local supermarkets on Monday instead.

Meanwhile on Monday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis resigned from his position. Iohannis said the move was to prevent the country from entering a crisis, given parliament was expected to vote on his impeachment.

Iohannis has already served a maximum of two five-year terms. However, his presidency was extended after the Constitutional Court in December cancelled the results of the presidential race in which Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round.

Romania’s coalition government has proposed repeating the presidential elections on 4 May, with a second round pencilled in for 18 May. However, they have yet to make a formal decision.