Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro launched an initiative to boycott retail chains for a day to pressure them to lower high prices, a few days after Croatians left shops nearly empty with the same purpose.

Calls for a boycott of shops in Bosnia and Montenegro have spread on social media, urging people not to make purchases on January 31.

“We believe that the prices are enormously high and that the leading retail chains, under mutual agreement on price formation, have had a decisive impact so that citizens do not feel the increase in salaries and pensions fully. On Friday, January 31, we call for a boycott of supermarkets and shops in Montenegro, all without exception,” the Alternative Montenegro Group wrote on Facebook. 

The group said this has nothing to do with politics and that high prices affect all citizens regardless of their political orientation.

The initiative in Montenegro was supported by Prime Minister Milojko Spajic who published on X his positive response to a poll on whether Montenegro should follow Croatia’s initiative. Members of Spajic’s PES party also backed the initiative.

In Bosnia, people are calling on all citizens not to buy anything on January 31.

“This is a way to express our dissatisfaction with the rising costs of food and energy while wages remain low. A one-day boycott can send a powerful message,” reads one of the widely shared messages on social media that was quoted by N1 news outlet.

Bosnians say that food prices in their country are higher than those in Germany, while wages are significantly lower.