What happened: On 13.09.2020, around 2:50 p.m., or more precisely before the football match between FC Vardar and FC Shkendija at the National Arena Todor Proevski – Skopje, the fans, on their way to the Arena, shouted out offensive implications, inciting 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 occurred (the City Park), 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.
