Emma Bonino, the Italian politician who led campaigns to legalise abortion and divorce against the objections of the Vatican, has died at the age of 78.
"Today we lose not only our leader but also one of the most clear-sighted, courageous and free figures in the political history of our country," said More Europe, the small party she founded, in a statement published on Friday.
Bonino served as a European commissioner and as foreign minister in Italy, but was best known as a militant feminist dedicated to political and humanitarian causes. "Her life was a long struggle against everything that denies freedom: against clandestine abortion, world hunger, the stranglehold of party politics, female genital mutilation, punitive justice, genocide, and every form of authoritarianism," her party said.
A former member of Italy's Radical Party, Bonino commanded respect across the political spectrum. Italy's far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, paid tribute to her, saying that although their "backgrounds and perspectives differed, that never prevented me from acknowledging her significance and her role in our nation's public life."
Bonino first became involved in Italian politics after she became pregnant at the age of 26 and had an abortion, at a time when the procedure was illegal. "I decided that never, never, never again should anyone have to suffer this humiliation," she said.
She subsequently handed herself in to the police, turning her private act into a public act of defiance. The arrest made headlines, fuelling a campaign that eventually led to the legalisation of abortion in Italy in 1978. It also launched Bonino into parliament with the Radical Party, described as a small but relentless force for civil rights.
During her 50-year political career, she served as foreign minister, trade minister and EU affairs minister in Italian centre-left governments during the 2000s and 2010s. She remained an outspoken supporter of European integration and the rights of refugees and migrants.
"You can look at the fights I have waged with this point of view: I support a democratic liberal order and believe in the centrality of the individual, his rights but also his responsibilities," she said in 2018.
Even after the Radical Party's political influence faded, Bonino remained a prominent public figure and human rights campaigner, active in Italy for more than five decades. She appeared frequently on Italian television. Following a cancer diagnosis in 2015, she was often seen in public wearing colourful headscarves.
Over the years, Bonino cultivated a close friendship with the late Pope Francis, despite their conflicting views on key ethical issues including abortion and euthanasia. She said that during their conversations, Francis always encouraged her to pursue her humanitarian causes and to defend those most in need.
When asked what battles she still had left to fight, Bonino would reply: "Many, too many. Human rights, world hunger, free scientific research... Ten lives won't be enough."
Bonino is survived by her siblings, Domenica and Giovanni, and their children.
