Emma Bonino (9 March 1948 – 11 September 2026) was an Italian politician. She was a senator for Rome between 2008 and 2013, and again between 2018 and 2022. She also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Previously, she was a Member of the European Parliament and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. She served in the government of Italy as Minister of International Trade from 2006 to 2008. She was European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection in the Santer Commission (1995–1999).
Bonino was a leading member of the Italian Radicals, a political party which describes itself "liberale, liberista, and libertario", where liberista denotes economic liberalism and libertario a form of cultural liberalism concerning moral issues, with some ideological connection with historical left-libertarianism. She graduated in modern languages and literature from Bocconi University in Milan in 1972. A veteran legislator in Italian politics and an activist for various reform policies, she was elected six times as a deputy and two times as a senator.
She was the leader of More Europe, a liberal, European federalist party list she launched in December 2017, ahead of the 2018 Italian general election.
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Background
Bonino was born in Bra, Italy on 9 March 1948. She never married nor had children, even surrendering to the Italian authorities in 1975 after having an illegal abortion. Bonino fostered children.
She graduated from Bocconi University in literature with a master thesis on Malcolm X's autobiography.
Bonino was a godmother of Countess Luana, elder daughter of Prince Friso and Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau.
On 12 January 2015, she announced on Radio Radicale she was suffering from lung cancer and was being treated with chemotherapy, though she also stated she was not abandoning her political activity.
On 21 May of the same year, on the same radio station, she announced her cancer was in complete remission. In October 2023, Bonino appeared on the interview program Belve, and announced she was healed.
Bonino died on 11 September 2026, at the age of 78.
National political career
Bonino was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1976 and reelected in 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1994 and 2006. In 1975, she founded the Information Centre on Sterilisation and Abortion and promoted the referendum which led to the legalisation of abortion in Italy. In 1986, she was among the promoters of a referendum against nuclear energy that led to the rejection of a civil nuclear energy programme in Italy.
On 17 May 2006, Bonino was appointed minister for international trade in the cabinet of Romano Prodi. She resigned from office on 7 May 2008 when she had been elected vice president of the Senate the previous day. In 2008, at the elections of 13 and 14 April, she was elected to a seat in the Senate, the second parliamentary chamber, on the list of the Democratic Party for the Piedmont constituency.
On 28 April 2013, she was sworn in as foreign minister in the government led by Enrico Letta.
In June 2017, public opinion polls of her stood at 43 percent, second only to prime minister Paolo Gentiloni. Despite the positive public opinion, her party fell short of the 3 percent required for a seat in Parliament. In response, she has adopted the slogan "Love Me Less, Vote Me More."
She was elected to the Senate of the Republic in the constituency of Rome – Gianicolense district at the 2018 general election.
International political career
Bonino was elected to the European Parliament in 1979 and re-elected in 1984 and 1999. She served as the Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party in 1993–94 and the party's president in 1991–1993. In October 1994, she was appointed head of the Italian Government delegation to the UN General Assembly for the "Moratorium on death penalty" initiative. From 1994 to 1999, she was European Commissioner responsible for Consumer Policy, Fisheries and the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO). In this role she played a part in the 1995 Turbot War as head of the delegation of the European Commission. As a result of this, the total allowable catch of fish awarded to the EU was significantly reduced. In 1997, her field of competence was widened to include consumer health protection and food safety.
From 14 to 17 May 1998, she participated in the annual meeting of the Bilderberg Group at Turnberry, Scotland.
On 15 March 1999, together with all the Santer Commission, she resigned due to the accusations of fraud and mismanagement against commissioner Édith Cresson. The final report however leveled charges against most commissioners, including Bonino herself. In November 2002, she was appointed Head of the Italian Government delegation at the Inter-governmental Conference of the Community of Democracies in Seoul.
Along with Marco Pannella, another member of the Radical Party, Bonino has fought numerous battles for civil rights and individual liberty, mainly concerned with divorce, the legalisation of abortion, the legalisation of drugs, and for sexual and religious freedoms. She has fought for an end to capital punishment, against female genital mutilation, and the eradication of world hunger. In 1975, Bonino funded the information centre for abortion (CISA), and in 1997 she supported the international movement condemning the discrimination of females in Afghanistan, Un Fiore per le Donne di Kabul (A Flower for the Women of Kabul). Bonino was also a champion of the recognition of women's rights in the countries of the African Union through the Maputo protocol. She was a founder of the nongovernmental organizations No Peace Without Justice, which supports the international protection and promotion of human rights and democracy, and Nessuno Tocchi Caino (Let None Strike Cain), which is an international league that fights for the abolition of the death penalty.
Philanthropy and charitable causes
Bonino was a member of the eminent international Council of Patrons of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The University, which is the product of foundational partnerships (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundation, IKEA Foundation, etc) and regional cooperation, serves women from 15 countries across Asia and the Middle East.
During an interview published by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on 8 February 2016, Pope Francis defined Bonino as one of the nation's "forgotten greats", comparing her to great historical figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman.
Recognition
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – awarded on 21 December 2015
In 1999 Bonino was one of the two winners of the North-South Prize, an award that honors individuals with accomplishment in the protection of human rights, pluralistic democracy, and improvement of North-South relations.
For her battles and engagements with controversial issues, her engagement in the promotion of human rights and civil rights in the world, she received the "Open Society Prize 2004" and "Prix Femmes d'Europe 2004" for Italy.
Bonino received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2013, and she was also recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women in this same year.