Homeland Movement leader Ivan Penava said on Saturday that self-sufficiency in food production and prevention of further demographic decline in rural areas was among his party's main goals.

“Croatia is facing a demographic collapse. Departures of people have resulted in the catastrophic loss of hundreds of thousands of people. As many as two of our counties are the worst among Europe’s 406 regions in terms of population loss. People are struggling with ubiquitous price hikes and inflation as living standards are declining,” Penava said during a visit to the eastern town of Velika.

“With self-sufficiency already low at just 48 per cent and the current African Swine Fever outbreak, Slavonia will see a further fall in production and will most likely end up at 30 per cent of self-sufficiency as a result of years of insufficient investment in the local economy,” he added.

Penava warned that young people were leaving Croatia because they could not get a job, while on the other hand, hundreds of thousands of work permits were being issued to foreigners. “Why is it that in Croatia young Croatians need a party membership card to get a job, while hundreds of thousands of work permits are being issued to foreigners?”

He said it would be only logical for the government to compensate dairy and pig farmers for the damage caused by African Swine Fever “to show them that they are important to us because we want to eat healthy, cheap, locally produced food and create jobs” rather than euthanise their pigs.

Penava also complained about “fruit treated with banned chemicals” being imported from Serbia. “Do we need to import this food, do we need to eat it and pay for it so dearly? We should produce all this in Croatia, in Lika, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Zagorje and so on. That is the Homeland Movement’s programme.”