Bonino was a prominent human rights and social justice champion known in Italy for her controversial campaigns.Italian liberal politician, feminist and veteran civil rights activist Emma Bonino died on Friday, aged 78, after being admitted to Rome's Santo Spirito hospital with respiratory failure.Bonino, a leading member of the Italian Radicals and founder of the liberal +Europa party, underwent eight years of treatment for a tumour in her left lung but in 2023 announced that she had been cured. Who was Emma Bonino Born on 9 March 1948 in the town of Bra in Italy's northwest Piemonte region, Bonino graduated from Bocconi University in Milan in 1972 with a degree in modern languages and literature. In 1975 she joined the Radicali Italiani and the following year she was elected to the Italian parliament for the first time. A former foreign, trade and EU affairs minister in centre-left governments during the 2000s and 2010s, Bonino served five years as EU commissioner for humanitarian aid in the 1990s. Prior to her cancer announcement in 2015, she was tipped to succeed Giorgio Napolitano to become Italy's first female president, a prospect opposed by the leader of the then small right-wing Fratelli d'Italia party - current prime minister Giorgia Meloni - who said: "Bonino represents everything I fight against." Abortion campaign She played a leading role in a high-profile campaign to legalise abortion, in the face of fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and conservative political parties. Bonino, who had helped women access illegal abortions across the country, went on hunger strike as part of the campaign and was even jailed. Abortion was subsequently legalised in Italy in 1978 and confirmed by a national referendum in 1981. Social justice A prominent human rights and social justice champion, Bonino campaigned for various other causes including divorce, sexual and religious freedoms, the legalisation of drugs, and against nuclear power. On the international stage she campaigned against the death penalty and female genital mutilation, and the eradication of world hunger. Two years ago, after being discharged from hospital where she had been treated for respiratory problems, she received a surprise visitor - her friend Pope Francis - who during a 2016 interview with Corriere della Sera praised Bonino as one of the "three great Italians of today". Photo credit: Daniele de Gregorio / Shutterstock.com.

Italian liberal politician, feminist and veteran civil rights activist Emma Bonino died on Friday, aged 78, after being admitted to Rome's Santo Spirito hospital with respiratory failure. Bonino, a leading member of the Italian Radicals and founder of the liberal +Europa party, underwent eight years of treatment for a tumour in her left lung but in 2023 announced that she had been cured. Born on 9 March 1948 in the town of Bra in Italy's northwest Piemonte region, Bonino graduated from Bocconi University in Milan in 1972 with a degree in modern languages and literature. In 1975 she joined the Radicali Italiani and the following year she was elected to the Italian parliament for the first time. A former foreign, trade and EU affairs minister in centre-left governments during the 2000s and 2010s, Bonino served five years as EU commissioner for humanitarian aid in the 1990s. Prior to her cancer announcement in 2015, she was tipped to succeed Giorgio Napolitano to become Italy's first female president, a prospect opposed by the leader of the then small right-wing Fratelli d'Italia party - current prime minister Giorgia Meloni - who said: "Bonino represents everything I fight against." She played a leading role in a high-profile campaign to legalise abortion, in the face of fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and conservative political parties. Bonino, who had helped women access illegal abortions across the country, went on hunger strike as part of the campaign and was even jailed. Abortion was subsequently legalised in Italy in 1978 and confirmed by a national referendum in 1981. A prominent human rights and social justice champion, Bonino campaigned for various other causes including divorce, sexual and religious freedoms, the legalisation of drugs, and against nuclear power. On the international stage she campaigned against the death penalty and female genital mutilation, and the eradication of world hunger. Two years ago, after being discharged from hospital where she had been treated for respiratory problems, she received a surprise visitor - her friend Pope Francis - who during a 2016 interview with Corriere della Sera praised Bonino as one of the "three great Italians of today". Photo credit: Daniele de Gregorio / Shutterstock.com.