From Carlo Nordio to Elly Schlein, from Massimo D'Alema to Paolo Gentiloni, from Carlo Calenda to Matteo Renzi, up to Giuseppe Conte and Romano Prodi. There are many politicians from all sides who participated in the state funeral of Emma Bonino in the Capitol. With them also the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who at the end of the ceremony following the family, 'accompanied' the coffin outside the building, in the hearse, for the final farewell.
The radical leader, according to what we learn, should be cremated and transported to the family chapel in Brà. Moments of general emotion at the exit of the building, where the political leaders stopped with Bonino's family members.
The mayor Roberto Gualtieri in the tricolor sash, the leader of Più Europa Riccardo Magi and the deputy Benedetto Della Vedova welcomed the authorities. There are also the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, the vice president of the Chamber Giorgio Mulè, the president of the Constitutional Court Giovanni Amoroso, ministers of the Meloni government, representatives of the center-left and radicals of all ages. Also arriving one by one, half an hour after the start of the funeral, were Mario Monti, Roberto Giachetti together with Maria Elena Boschi, the minister Marina Calderone, Angelo Bonelli.
A large screen was mounted in Piazza del Campidoglio to allow citizens present to watch the funeral, which was also broadcast live on Rai.
Prodi: 'The past often returns to rights, Bonino's tenacity has never waned'
"I collaborated with her for two of the many battles in favor of civil rights, against the death penalty and against the use of anti-personnel mines. Progress has also been made in those two sectors, but as often happens in the field of human rights we have repeatedly witnessed a return from the past. And a progress of democracy that has become increasingly difficult. And precisely against these obstacles, Emma's tenacity in the defense of rights has never wavered." Former prime minister Romano Prodi said this while speaking at the funeral. "We have not always shared everything, but her battle for the weak and defenseless was her guiding star and was a lesson for all of us. A battle that Emma carried on with unparalleled strength and determination", he added.
Magi: 'Bonino disobeyed unjust laws to improve the institutions'
Emma criticized the institutions, contested them to the point of disobeying the laws that she considered unjust and liberticidal, facing the consequences of her actions to reform them. Every action, every controversy, every protest never had the aim of damaging or tarnishing them, but always of improving them". This was said by the secretary of Più Europa, Riccardo Magi, during the funeral. "Emma dedicated her life and all her energy to this love for democracy and democratic institutions, expressed through the intransigent struggle to obtain reforms that led to the conquest of greater rights and freedoms for all the citizens who thanked her, moved here in these two days", he underlined.
The historic assistant Carla Taibi: 'Emma is an example, she won'
"Emma was the inspiration of many girls, I was one of them. I never imagined being able to work for and with her every day for the last 16 years of her life. She was a teacher, a friend in her own way, but above all she was an example. Emma was really many, many things. She was tenacious and stubborn, with that dignity that she herself spoke of. She was precise, demanding and intransigent. She studied every issue, examined it and never really gave up. She was strict with all because she was personally severe and demanding of herself. In recent days everyone has remembered this, her struggles have changed this country and the world. For women's freedoms, against clandestine abortion and gender violence, the International Criminal Court and the death penalty, human rights, world hunger, female genital mutilation and forced marriages, the rule of law, democracy. the freedom of people to be able to choose responsibly until the end". This was said by Emma Bonino's historic assistant, Carla Taibi, during the secular funeral of the radical leader at the Capitol.
"But Emma never thought she was alone, she always recognized the role of Marco Pannella, of politics, radical politics, of her many companions. And she decided to put that heritage into the party she founded, in the name of her greatest battle: the United States of Europe as a single destiny for people and their freedoms", highlighted Taibi. "She wouldn't have wanted a commemoration: the best way to remember her is certainly to keep all her battles together, defending what she has already achieved and continuing the unfinished ones, keeping in mind her way of fighting them: with rigor, with study, with obstinacy, with the method of non-violence, even when they were unpopular. Even when to win them it was necessary to lose many times. And Emma lost many times, but as Marco and she loved to repeat, duration is the form of things, and they demonstrated it. And look at the Italy of today Emma somehow won, she won without much recognition for the party, without many votes or parliamentarians in the various legislatures. She won because today no one can say that she hasn't changed Italy and the world", he underlined.
The Coscioni Association: 'Emma's last month in Sabaudia, close to the Ventotene of the EU manifesto'
"Speaking of European federalism, perhaps it is no coincidence that Emma wanted to spend the last month in front of her beloved sea, in Sabaudia, looking at the islands of Ponza, and not only ideally being close to Ventotene". The secretary of the Luca Coscioni association, Filomena Gallo, said this during the secular funeral of Emma Bonino at the Campidoglio.
"It is impossible to say - she said again - how she would have wanted to honor this occasion too, but I am sure that she would have had the impertinence of the Montecitorio brat, as President Sandro Pertini defined it, and would have found a way to entrust us with a political message. I will choose one: the birth of the International Criminal Court": that Court "today risks being dismantled brick by brick by the arrogance of those who practice the law of the strongest" and "it must be defended. Emma Bonino, that Court wanted it and to which it has dedicated years of activity, would have been in favor of both concrete and symbolic support, perhaps by nominating the Court itself for the Nobel Peace Prize".
