What happened: On 19.09.2020, around 3:00 p.m., right before the football match between FC Macedonia Gjorce Petrov and FC Vardar, on Gjorce Petrov Blvd. in Skopje, the fans, on their way to the match, shouted out offensive messages instigating national hatred and intolerance.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motives are ethnic origin and the location where the incident happened (in front of the stadium), as well as the fact that it was caused by a football fan group, with the bias indicators being:
- Ethnic origin – the potential victims and the attackers belonged to a different ethnic community;
- Pattern of previous incidents – Previous assaults near the stadium and between football fans.
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the general safety in the country and aggravate the ethnic polarization, leading to an additional increase in hate crimes caused by different ethnicities.
