Emma Bonino Appointed Foreign Minister of Italy

After a problematic and confusing period that left Italy without a government for two months after the elections, Giorgio Napolitano demanded on the day of his re-election as President of the Republic to form a new government which could face the difficult crisis that Italy is going through. After just a week from his speech, Enrico Letta became Prime Minister.

Emma Bonino and Enrico Letta

Minister of Foreign Affairs Emma Bonino

With his election came also the designations for the various Ministers. Emma Bonino was chosen as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and will succeed Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, who resigned in March 2013. 

Just few days ago, Bonino was a possible candidate for the presidency of the Republic, supported by the many who wanted a woman President that would also be concerned with social issues. She was not elected this time, but the new Prime Minister decided to entrust her with a key Ministry, such as the one of Foreign Affairs, due to her long career in International Politics.

Being elected at the European Parliament in 1979, when she was only thirty-one, she immediately started to get involved in social matters: after only two years she founded the 'Food and Disarmament International' against starvation. This issue was not the only one that concerned her, as Bonino has always protested on the first line for the things she believed in. She demonstrated in Poland against the communist regime, before eventually being expelled from the country, and then in New York where she was arrested for distributing sterile syringes for fighting against the law that required a medical prescription for buying syringes.
 

During the nineties, she founded the organization 'Non c'e' pace senza giustizia (There is no peace without justice)' to sustain the activities of a special tribunal for the former nation of Yugoslavia, and to promote the creation of an International Criminal Court that would judge crimes against humanity, war and genocide. All these important matters have always been a firm point of her political schedule, even after her nomination as secretary of the Radical Party in 1993.
 

Shortly after that, she was nominated as leader of the delegation of the Italian government at the United Nations for an initiative to fight the death penalty, before eventually becoming European commissioner. The courage that has always characterized her has also put her at risk, when she was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan while fighting against the Taliban regime. However, this gave her the chance to start another campaign called 'A flower for the women of Kabul,' in order to make people conscious about the condition of the women in Afghanistan.
 

Her curiosity and interest in foreign affairs led her to move to Cairo, where she started a campaign against feminine mutilations, a very important cause that nobody else was seriously evaluating. Always being present on the Italian political landscape with the Radical Party, she has showed a very strong interest in what concerned other countries and their social issues. This is one of the reasons why she was chosen as Minister of the European Politics and International Trade by Romano Prodi in 2006 and, just few days ago, as Minister of Foreign Affairs by newly-elected Prime Minister Enrico Letta.
 

Her experience, her long-lasting career, her knowledge about world's problematics, her courage and passion in her job are definitely invaluable characteristics that contributed to her designation as Minister and that will continue to guide her during the mandate.