Emma Bonino, a trailblazing radical Italian politician renowned for her militant defense of civil rights and her long-standing campaigns against the Vatican’s influence, has died at the age of 78. The party she founded, More Europe, announced her death on Friday, describing her as one of the most courageous and clear-sighted figures in the nation's political history.
Throughout a political career spanning more than five decades, Bonino was a relentless campaigner for social change. She was best known for her fight to legalize abortion and divorce in Italy, causes she championed despite significant opposition from the Vatican. Her activism was rooted in personal experience; at age 26, after undergoing an illegal abortion, she publicly declared that no one else should endure such humiliation. By turning her private act of defiance into a public stand and handing herself in to the police, she helped fuel the movement that ultimately led to the legalization of abortion in 1978. This event also marked her entry into parliament with the Radical party, which served as a small but highly influential force for civil rights.
Beyond her domestic work, Bonino held various high-level positions, including serving as a European commissioner and as Italy’s foreign minister, trade minister, and EU affairs minister during the 2000s and 2010s. Her party noted that her life was a constant struggle against authoritarianism, genocide, world hunger, and female genital mutilation. Even as her party's political influence waned, she remained a prominent human rights campaigner and a familiar face on Italian television, often recognized in her later years by the colourful headscarves she wore following a 2015 cancer diagnosis.
Despite their ideological differences, Bonino earned respect across the political spectrum. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged her significance in public life, noting that their differing perspectives never prevented her from recognizing Bonino's important role. Bonino also maintained a notable friendship with Pope Francis, with whom she discussed humanitarian battles and the defense of those in need, despite their conflicting views on issues such as euthanasia and abortion. When reflecting on her life's work in 2018, Bonino told reporters that her political focus remained on a democratic liberal order and the centrality of individual rights. She is survived by her siblings, Domenica and Giovanni, and their children.
