ROME. Emma Bonino passed away in Rome at the age of 78. In recent days she had been admitted to intensive care following a respiratory crisis. Yesterday – September 10 – she was then transferred to a private facility.
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The staff’s statement
“Emma has left us but will never leave us.” This is how the staff of the historic radical leader announced the passing of Emma Bonino. “Today we do not only lose our leader, we lose one of the clearest, bravest, and freest protagonists in the political history of our country and the free world. Emma was ‘chosen by radical politics’ when a ban changed her young life. And from that moment she decided she would fight so that it could never happen to anyone again.”
Emma Bonino, it is recalled, was “activist, parliamentarian, minister, European commissioner. Always radically free. Her life was a long struggle against everything that denies freedoms: against clandestine abortion, against world hunger, against partitocracy, against infibulation, against judicialism, against genocides, against every form of authoritarianism.”
“But even more numerous were her battles for: democracy, the rule of law, international justice, the rights and duties of every person and every family, for women’s self-determination, for the freedom to choose, until the end. And for a united, democratic, and federal Europe: the United States of Europe.”
“This is her legacy: it does not matter how many times you have to lose before you manage to win and conquer freedom for all. There are no words to describe the pain and emptiness we feel today. From tomorrow we will try to find the right words to transform the gratitude we feel for having been able to fight by her side into the courage to continue to fight as she taught us.” “Thank you Emma, from the bottom of our hearts,” it concludes.
Reactions and condolences
Many, obviously, are the messages of condolence in these hours. “Emma Bonino represented for decades a strong and recognizable voice in Italian politics, carrying forward her ideas with determination.” So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on social media. “Our stories and sensibilities have been distant, but this has never prevented me from recognizing her weight and role in the public life of our Nation – she added –. My condolences go to her family and loved ones.”
The minute of silence
The Senate observed a minute: at 11 the Chamber will remember the Radical leader. Decision taken in agreement among the Groups, as announced by the vice president and acting president, Licia Ronzulli.
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