Libera San Marino has also joined the chorus of condolences for the passing of Emma Bonino, honouring her political and civic commitment and the battles she waged for more than fifty years in defence of rights and freedom.
“Libera expresses its deep sorrow at the passing of Emma Bonino, a leading figure in Italian and European political life for over fifty years and a tireless voice in the defence of civil rights, individual freedoms and human dignity,” reads the statement.
The San Marino movement recalls in particular the key battles that marked Bonino’s long political career. “With Emma we lose a woman who had the courage to bring into politics causes often considered awkward or marginal, helping instead to turn them into major social and collective issues,” Libera notes, recalling her commitment to women’s rights, her opposition to the death penalty, and her work for human rights and justice.
The statement also gives a central place to her pro-European vocation. “As European Commissioner, member of parliament and Foreign Minister, right up to her commitment in recent years to a stronger and more united Europe, Emma continued to present European integration not merely as an institutional choice, but as a shared space of freedom, democracy and rights.”
Libera further stresses that one did not need to share all of Bonino’s positions to recognise “the strength, the consistency and the value of a life entirely devoted to one’s own ideas,” remembering her as “a politician capable of swimming against the tide, of challenging entrenched certainties and of viewing hard-won rights as never definitively secured.”
From this, the movement draws what it considers one of the main messages left to future generations: “Freedoms and rights must not only be won, they must be defended every day.”
“Libera joins in mourning her passing and pays tribute to a free, courageous and profoundly European woman, who left an indelible mark on the political and civic history of our time,” the statement concludes.
