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| Source - Wikipedia |
Emma Bonino, the prominent Italian rights activist and former European commissioner, has died at the age of 78.
Celebrated for her pragmatism and unwavering dedication to her causes, she built unique alliances, including a close friendship with Pope Francis based on their mutual support for migrants.
Born in Piedmont, she dedicated her life to political activism after having an illegal abortion in 1974. Elected to parliament at age 28 with the libertarian-left Radical Party, she campaigned fiercely to legalize abortion and divorce, ban nuclear power, and secularize Italy.
As an MEP, she took her activism global, facing arrests abroad for protesting—including brief imprisonment in Communist Poland in 1987 and an arrest in New York in 1989 while protesting U.S. AIDS policies.
Appointed as Italy's European commissioner in 1994, she managed portfolios covering humanitarian aid, consumer policy, and fisheries. She broke bureaucratic norms by traveling directly to conflict zones like the Balkans and Rwanda. Her term ended abruptly in 1999 when the entire Jacques Santer College resigned due to broader fraud allegations within the commission, though she was cleared of personal involvement.
In her later career, she served in Italy as Minister of European Affairs (2006), Vice President of the Senate, and Foreign Minister (2013)
You can read a fuller obituary here https://www.politico.eu/article/emma-bonino-italys-activist-commissioner-dies-at-at-78/
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