Mattarella leads tributes to Segre on 90th birthday

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 10 - President Sergio Mattarella led the tributes to Liliana Segre as the Holocaust survivor and Life Senator celebrated her 90th birthday on Thursday.
    The head of State called Segre and thanked her for her efforts to combat hatred, violence and discrimination, sources said.
    In an interview published in Thursday's edition of La Stampa, Segre expressed dismay about the case of Willy Monteiro Duarte, a 21-year-old who was beaten to death at the weekend at Colleferro, near Rome.
    "We are in the grip of the problem of a Fascist mentality which still pervades and which we have not done enough to free ourselves of," she said.
    She added that she felt the young man's death was "like a personal defeat.
    "It made me think that all that I have tried to do against violence and hatred has served for little," she said.
    "If there are still people who go around trying to resolve their personal defeats by beating up others, we are still disant from being a civilized society".
    Segre was assigned a security detail last year after she was the target of online threats and anti-Semitic insults. (ANSA).