President Sergio Mattarella called for rigorous Europe-wide action to battle anti-Semitism during a ceremony at the Quirinal Palace in Rome for Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday.
"The recurrence and spread of manifestations of racism and anti-Semitism is an indication of a high level of danger and calls for rigorous action on the part of authorities throughout the European Union," the head of State said.
"In the (Italian) Republic, there is no place for the poison of racial hatred, for the germs of discrimination, for the anti-Semitism that still dangerously comes to the surface, for those who preach violence, for those who cultivate ideologies of oppression".
Mattarella also blasted the abuse 95-year-old Italian Life Senator and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre is frequently subjected to.
"I renew the Republic's gratitude to Senator Segre for her precious testimony of the horrors she experienced and for her message, always marked by the rejection of hatred, revenge, and violence," the president said.
