Portrait

Marco Pannella

Born: 2 May 1930Teramo, Italy
Died: 19 May 2016Rome, Italy · aged 86

Politician and civil rights activistItaly10th anniversary of death

Marco Pannella

Italy’s great civil rights campaigner fought for divorce, abortion and gay rights with hunger strikes – and spoke openly about loving men and women.

Marco Pannella grew up in the Abruzzo region and studied law. In 1955 he was one of the founders of the Italian Radical Party, which he led for decades. His weapons were referendums, civil disobedience and nonviolent protest, above all spectacular hunger and thirst strikes.

The Radicals fought for the legalisation of divorce, confirmed by referendum in 1974, and of abortion, as well as for conscientious objection, the decriminalisation of soft drugs, prison reform and the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. In 1971 the Radicals supported the founding of FUORI!, the first Italian gay rights organisation, and later took it under their wing – at a time when no other party would touch the issue.

Pannella said openly that he had loved both men and women, which made him one of the first Italian politicians to speak about his own bisexuality. From 1979 to 2009 he was a member of the European Parliament, where he campaigned for human rights around the world.

He died in Rome in 2016, aged 86. Even his political opponents honoured him as one of the great defenders of civil liberties in Italy.

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