Italian politician and activist Emma Bonino has died at the age of 78. She was a longstanding and outspoken supporter of Kosovo, both during the 1999 war and in the years that followed.
“Today we have lost not only our leader, but also one of the most visionary, courageous and free figures in the political history of our country,” her party, +Europa, announced on Friday.
Bonino was one of the prominent Italian voices supporting NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999. During the war, she also visited Kosovo refugees in neighboring countries. On May 9, 1999, while serving as the European Union’s humanitarian aid commissioner, Bonino was in Skopje, where she raised the alarm over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Kosovo.
“There are at least 690,000 displaced people, which means that a human bomb has been filled and could explode at any moment,” she said at the time.
Bonino also condemned the actions of the Yugoslav authorities, who had prevented Kosovars from entering Macedonia for four days, further deepening the humanitarian crisis.
Her support for Kosovo continued after the war. In 2013, she visited Kosovo and publicly pledged her support for efforts to secure visa liberalization for its citizens.
Beyond her role in supporting Kosovo, Bonino was internationally known for her decades-long advocacy for civil liberties and human rights. She was a leading figure in campaigns to legalize abortion and divorce in Italy, despite strong opposition from the Vatican.
Her political career was defined by campaigns against restrictions on individual freedom and authoritarianism.
“Her life was a struggle against everything that denied freedom: against clandestine abortions, hunger, the party system, female genital mutilation, punitive justice, genocide and every form of authoritarianism,” +Europa said in its tribute.
For Kosovo, Bonino will be remembered as one of the European political figures who consistently raised her voice during the country’s darkest days and continued to support its European path long after the war had ended.
