Croatian party gives away two tons of free strawberries

ZAGREB, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Croatian populist party Zivi zid (Living Wall) bought two tons of domestic strawberries and donated them to citizens and poorhouses on Wednesday, two days after local farmers protested against cheap fruit imports in the country.

The Zivi zid party gave away the free strawberries in front of the Croatian National Bank in Zagreb on Wednesday.

Party leader Ivan Silibor Sincic said the price of Croatian fruit was not competitive on the market because of the central bank's bad monetary policy which is keeping Croatian currency overvalued.

Croatian farmers staged a protest in Zagreb on Monday in front of a supermarket by giving away free strawberries. The head of the City of Zagreb Association of Strawberry Farmers claimed they opposed imports of the fruit during the picking season because they cannot compete with the prices of strawberries from other countries.

He argued that the prices of imported strawberries were just below any sustainable level. The price of a box of Croatian strawberries costs around 12 kuna (1.9 U.S. dollars), while the imported ones can be found for 9 kuna per box.

Zivi zid is the third strongest party in the southeastern European country and the only one whose support has significantly risen in the last year.

According to the latest CRO Demoskop survey conducted from May 2 to 5, 12.7 percent of respondents support Zivi zid. The party may hold the key to Croatia's government after the election in 2020 or earlier.

At the party congress in April, the party leaders said leaving European Union and NATO were key parts of their program. Enditem