Andrej Kuculovski, the president of the Levica youth wing, has been detained by the police in Skopje. The reason - at a handball match between Macedonia and Israel, part of the World School Championship in handball held at the "Jane Sandanski" sports centre, he raised a Palestinian flag.

The Interior Ministry officially confirmed - "A.K. (28) raised the flag of Palestine". Levica responded in a sharp tone. "The president of Red Youth has been arrested as if he were a hardened criminal," they said, claiming that the intervention was "excessive use of force".

Raising a flag - which is the official flag of a state, recognised by more than 130 countries at the UN - does not constitute a criminal offence in any legal system Macedonia respects. But in a specific sporting environment, under FIFA and UEFA rules (and similar rules often apply in parallel in handball), political messages on stadiums are forbidden. That is one reality.

The other reality - the selectivity in the application of those rules. On Macedonian stadiums, political symbols show up every week. Albanian, red-and-black flags, nationalist messages, provocative banners. The police rarely intervene. But when it is a Palestinian flag - the reaction is instant.

Levica announced it would use "all legal and institutional mechanisms". In a parliamentary democracy that means a series of complaints, international appeals, and press conferences. The question is whether that will lead to a political discussion about double standards in enforcing public order, or whether it will just be one more daily political talking point.

For the wider Balkans, the Kuculovski case reopens the running questions inside sport: where fan culture ends, where political demonstration begins, and who decides behind the scenes. Questions as old as the stadiums themselves.