Emma Bonino, Italian feminist politician, dies at 78

Emma Bonino, the Italian radical activist, feminist campaigner and former foreign minister, has died aged 78.

Bonino was a veteran of campaigns for divorce and abortion rights, a former member of Italy's Radical Party and the founder of the small More Europe party. She also served as a European commissioner, a senator and Italy's foreign minister.

More Europe said on Facebook on Friday that it had lost its leader and one of the country's most clear-sighted, courageous and free political figures.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid tribute, saying that their different backgrounds and perspectives had not prevented her from acknowledging Bonino's significance in Italy's public life. European Parliament president Roberta Metsola said: "The Europe she fought for will miss her."

Bonino was born on a farm in Bra, in northwest Italy, in 1948 and graduated in foreign languages and literature at Milan's Bocconi University before joining the Radical Party.

She became one of Italy's best-known campaigners for abortion rights after having an abortion when the procedure was illegal in Italy. She later said the experience was humiliating and pushed her into activism.

In 1975, she founded the Centre for Information, Sterilisation and Abortion, known as CISA, and was elected to parliament for the Radical Party in 1976. Abortion was legalised in Italy in 1978.

Bonino later campaigned on issues including the liberalisation of soft drugs, opposition to nuclear power, controlled heroin programmes, the death penalty, world hunger, migrant rights and support for the European Union.

She was elected several times to the European Parliament and served as European Consumer Protection Commissioner from 1994 to 1999. She became a senator in Rome in 2008, served as Italy's minister for international trade and European policies from 2006 to 2008, and was foreign minister from 2013 to 2014.

In 2018, Bonino led the More Europe movement, but the party fell short of the three percent vote threshold needed to win a seat in parliament.

Bonino was diagnosed in 2015 with pulmonary microcytoma, described as an aggressive lung cancer, and received the all clear in 2023. She was hospitalised for respiratory problems in 2024. While she was recovering at home, she received a surprise visit from Pope Francis, with whom she shared concern for migrants' rights despite cultural and religious differences.

In February 2025, Bonino said her body was failing her and that she was paying a physical price for having used it "as a political weapon" for decades.