Skopje, 28 January 2025 (MIA) – Calls for boycott of shops nationwide on Friday in protest against surging prices are being shared on social media following last week’s daylong boycott in Croatia. The move is expected to expand across the region to include Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The Organization of Consumers of Macedonia, which is not involved in organizing the boycott, says it supports the act.

“We do not organize the boycott, but we support the citizens in order to encourage the business sector to lower prices of goods, especially foodstuffs, because they have been going only up,” Mirjana Lonchar, president of the Organization, tells MIA. 

Even though, she says, we know how prices are formed, yet there is something that’s called living standards.

Lonchar says she hopes the government will support the citizens by taking long-term measures, such as a spring basket that would last three months instead of one.

Lonchar also proposes that it should be looked into whether large supermarket chains have a mutual agreement over raising prices. According to her, the measures should be agreed together with trade unions and the Organization of Consumers of Macedonia.

In press releases, the country’s two largest parties - ruling VMRO-DPMNE and opposition SDSM - reacted to the calls for boycott of shops on Friday.

Saying it supported the boycott, VMRO-DPMNE says the institutions will look into all wrongdoings. There is no economic reason to raise prices other than store owners acting on a whim, it notes.

According to SDSM, calls for boycott are increasing because the government has failed to protect the citizens from price hikes. 

MIA file photo