Born in Sinalunga, in the province of Siena,[1][2][3] Bindi graduated in political science.[4] Prior to her graduation at LUISS, Bindi enrolled in sociology at the University of Trento, and later became a researcher in administrative law in the Faculty of Political Science at La Sapienza in Rome and then in the Faculty of Law at the University of Siena until 1989.[5] A pupil and later assistant of the lawyer, magistrate, and DC politician Vittorio Bachelet, she was standing near Bachelet when he was assassinated by the Red Brigades in 1980.[6] Bachelet's death contributed to Bindi's anti-mafia activism.[3] In 2020, she said that Bachelet's assassination was the result of the powers that be opposed to the changes of those years.[7]
Career
Political career
From 1984 to 1989, Bindi held the position of vice-president of Azione Cattolica, the most popular Italian Catholic lay association, with which she continues to be active.[1][2][3] In 1989, she joined the DC, the ruling party of the First Italian Republic.[8] In the 1989 European Parliament election in Italy, she was elected a member of the European Parliament, a position she held until 1994.[9] During her period at the European Parliament, she was president of the Petitions and Citizens' Rights Commission.[4] During her career, she was a follower of Giuseppe Dossetti, whom she met in Monteveglio, and was close to Tina Anselmi.[9] After the dissolution of the DC in 1994, Bindi joined the PPI, of which she became regional secretary in Veneto,[4] and later became a leading figure in The Olive Tree,[3] the broad left-to-centre coalition led by Romano Prodi;[10] later in the 2000s, she was also a lead figure of the DL.[3]
Following the coalition's victory in the 1996 Italian general election, Bindi was named Minister of Health, a position she held in the governments led by Massimo D'Alema. During her tenure at the Ministry of Health, through Bindi's circolare of 2 December 1996,[nb 1]electroshock therapy (ECT) was re-introduced in Italy to treat psychiatrized patients. It was later corrected through Bindi's circolare of 15 February 1999,[nb 2] which limited the use of ECT in particular cases but did not totally revoke it.[11][12][13] In 1999, she also reformed Italy's national health service, closely following Anselmi's reform of 1979.[9] In addition to the restrictions on ECT, other reforms included the definitive closure of psychiatric hospitals, the bills on the rights and duties of cohabitations, which brought criticism from Catholics because too radical and from LGBT people because too moderate, and on equality between natural and legitimate children.[9] Under Bindi, the Ministry of Health contributed to the rewriting of Title V of the Constitution of Italy with the redefinition of the relationship between state and territory in the healthcare sector.[14]
From 2008 to 2013, Bindi was the vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies.[21] From 2009 to 2013, she was president of the PD.[4] In the 2009 PD leadership election, Bindi supported eventual winner Pierluigi Bersani.[14] She strongly criticized the 101 party deputies that did not vote for Prodi and thus sank his candidacy during the 2013 Italian presidential election.[22][23] In the 2013 PD leadership election that ensued after Bersani resigned due to Prodi's failed candidacy, she did not endorse neither eventual winner Matteo Renzi nor Gianni Cuperlo, who succeeded her as the party's president; she said that she did not recognize herself in neither candidate.[24][25] During the 2017 PD leadership election, Bindi voted for the runner-up Andrea Orlando.[26] Later that same year, she said that the PD under Renzi had betrayed The Olive Tree and described it as Berlusconi's crutch.[27] In 2018, Bindi called for the dissolution of the PD,[28] a position she repeated in 2022.[29] In an interview to La Repubblica on 12 February 2021, Bindi reiterated that she no longer recognized herself in the PD,[30][31][32] and that is why she continues to not renew her PD membership card.[2] In an interview to La Stampa that same day, she said: "I think it's time for women to run for party leadership."[33] In the 2023 PD leadership election, Bindi did not endorse neither eventual winner Elly Schlein nor Stefano Bonaccini.[34] Later that same year, she took part to a PD rally after many years. She clarified that she would not return to the party as a member.[23]
President of the Antimafia Commission
In October 2013, Bindi was elected president of the Antimafia Commission, a position she held until March 2018.[4] In May 2015, the Antimafia Commission led by Bindi published a list of unpresentable candidates, including fellow PD member and Campania president candidate Vincenzo De Luca.[35][36][37] In April 2017, the Antimafia Commission headed by Bindi invited the Guardia di Finanza to seize and make public the lists of 35,000 members of the four main Italian Masonic obediences.[38][39][40] The lodges described the parliamentary inquiry as a witch-hunt. Bindi called the description made by Giuliano Di Bernardo, a Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy lodge at Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome who testified to the Antimafia Commission, a "truly separate order within the state".[41] In December 2017, she said that the Sicilian Mafia and 'Ndrangheta were interested to Masonry.[42] According to the Antimafia Commission, the secrecy of Freemasonry "is inconceivable in a democratic state".[43] The final report, which said it was not about Masonry itself but rather "on the relational aspect of the mafias", concluded that there were organizations in which "there has been a sort of 'surrender' towards the mafia", with a control system which "has often proven ineffective ... above all due to the lack of will in this sense".[44]
In March 2017, Bindi was the head of an Antimafia Commission about the alleged ties between the then Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli and the 'Ndrangheta within the inquiry about alleged tickets sales to 'Ndrangheta members.[45][46] Bindi commented: "The mafias in Italy even reach Juventus, this is clear."[47] A supporter of Juventus rival Fiorentina, Bindi ironically congratulated Agnelli for winning the 2017 Coppa Italia final and sent her best wishes for the 2017 UEFA Champions League final but said that in the league she "must respect the pluralism of the fans".[48][49][50] It later emerged that a wiretap implicating Agnelli, which Bindi had cited during a parliamentary audition in response to the objections of Agnelli's lawyer and the doubts of the then PD senator Stefano Esposito,[nb 3] was fabricated by the public prosecutor Giuseppe Pecoraro, a supporter of Juventus rival Napoli who had said that he hoped Juventus would not win the scudetto, and Agnelli and the club were acquitted of the charge.[51] Although Juventus was the only club investigated by sports justice, the Antimafia Commission report also cited Catania, Genoa, Lazio, and Napoli, and concluded that "the largely criminal background of the representatives of organized groups is the ideal humus to allow the infiltration of mafia-type organized crime" and that these cases "paint a varied picture". Bindi commented: "Football, as a body, is not healthy enough to consider itself immune from mafias, it is a world rich in money and the possibility of creating consensus."[52][nb 4]
Post-retirement activities
Bindi's post-retirement activities included reports on mafia and information and on confiscated assets, the legislative proposals on the anti-mafia code and on witnesses of justice, the diffusion of the first list of the unpresentable in 2015, the seizure of the lists of Masonic lodges, the contribution to the working group on excommunication of mafias established in the Vatican, and the publication of some books, including La salute impaziente, Famiglia, Cattolica e democratica, and Quel che è di Cesare.[9]
In 2018, Bindi was made honorary president of the Fundamental Health Law Association, which was founded together with health policy experts, doctors, epidemiologists, and jurists in defense of public health. She published several documents on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy on the national health service and the risks of privatization of the public service.[2] In 2020, Bindi joined the scientific committee of lavialibera, a bimonthly information and in-depth magazine on mafias, corruption, the environment, and migration directed by Luigi Ciotti.[2] In May 2021, she joined a working group on excommunication of mafias established in the Vatican at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, with the aim of following up on the excommunication of mafiosi pronounced by Pope Francis in Calabria on 21 June 2014.[2] In June 2021, Bindi became a professor at the Pontifical University Antonianum, where she carries out training and research activities on the topics of legality and the fight against mafias in the analysis and study of criminal and mafia phenomenon, in collaboration with the Department of Liberating Maria from the mafias of the Pontifical Academy of Mary.[2]
Political views
During her political career, Bindi was considered a representative of left-leaning Christian democracy and part of the Christian left, interested to the dialogue between Catholics and secularists.[1][2][3] Although she left politics and the PD in 2018, Bindi remains close to the party and is a political commentator interested to the politics of the PD and the broader Italian left-wing.[32][34][53] In the context of the 2021 Italian government crisis, she defended Giuseppe Conte and criticized Matteo Renzi. She said: "Meetings with my universe of reference, the Catholic world, the anti-mafia, the schools, are always on the agenda and held remotely. Now it will be Mario Draghi who will take us out of the [COVID-19] pandemic. ... I respect the person and I also believe that he is the right man. But let me tell you two things. I would have given Giuseppe Conte another chance. If it is true that there were some shortcomings, there is no doubt that the war was unleashed against him. ... I am intrigued by the fact that Matteo Renzi today manages to say, quite with impunity, that he paved the way for Draghi. He closed it to Conte. His target was Conte. Stop. And to achieve it he made Italy risk its neck."[30]
In December 2023, Bindi said that the European Union can be reborn through criticism of capitalism. About the relations between capitalism and the European Union, Bindi stated: "We thought that democracy had won [in 1989], but instead capitalism won. Europe has lost its social function and the ability to guide the rules of the market and the liberal right has imposed its development model, with the capitalism of shareholders and profit. We cannot help but make this self-criticism, also in reference to the Third Way, which has not been able to react adequately."[54] About liberal democracy and the threats to it, she said: "Democracy is faltering on this continent, public policies and policies on common goods, from work to welfare, have been backwards since the 1980s, and when a democracy no longer guarantees respect for fundamental rights, the mechanism of individualism is triggered."[54] On the issue of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bindi took a classic Italian Catholic pacifist view, saying: "Now the war is inside Europe, is the EU aware that it is the force of politics and not of weapons that can end it?"[54] On the Middle East and the 2023 escalation of the Israeli–Palestine conflict, she stated: "It's humiliating to see European leaders going to Tel Aviv to say different things."[54] In April 2024, ahead of the 2024 European Parliament election in Italy, Bindi defended the PD candidates, such as Marco Tarquinio and Cecilia Strada, who held different views from the party on issues like Ukraine and war, saying that voters shared Tarquinio and Strada's views more than the party's leaders.[53]
In response to Gennaro Sangiuliano, who defined himself as both anti-communist and anti-fascist, and asked Bindi to do the same in January 2024, she said: "I am definitely anti-fascist. I always say that I am a woman of the left but I have never been a communist, however in my small way with my political militancy, from the DC to the PD, I believe I have contributed to ensuring that communism, which was present in the life of our country, was a factor integral part of Italian democracy. The profound difference is that the Italian communists wrote the Constitution. The Italian fascists did not."[55] About the Meloni government, of which Sangiuliano was then part as Minister of Culture, she further commented: "This government is not only not anti-fascist, it is also anti-republican."[56] She further explained to Sangiuliano that while the Constitution of Italy recognizes private property and profit as legitimate, it attributes a social purpose to them. She said: "The richness of our Constitution has a social purpose. There are common goods and public goods which are more important than individual goods. Since this lesson has been forgotten, school, public health, safety in the workplace, and on the streets have been abandoned. And therefore inequalities increase."[57]
Little is known about Bindi's private life, other than she is not married and has no children.[1][2][3] Controversy ensued in 2006 after the then National Alliance senator Maurizio Saia implied that Bindi was a lesbian and thus was not suitable to be Minister for Family Policies. His words, which were uttered during a local TV programme, were unanimously condemned.[58][59] In a 2011 interview to the weekly A, she opened up about her personal life, stating that she has had two to three boyfriends.[60] A practising Catholic,[61] one of her interests is theology.[1][2][3] Bindi is a supporter of Fiorentina.[62]
Bindi was often the target of Silvio Berlusconi's sexist jibes,[63][64][nb 5] and from other centre-right coalition politicians, such as Vittorio Sgarbi,[79][80][nb 6] who once referred to the Italian president Sergio Mattarella as "the unexpressed twin of Rosy Bindi",[84] whose role as president of the Antimafia Commission he criticized.[85][86] When Berlusconi died in June 2023, she said that "sanctification is not good for Italy, national mourning is inappropriate",[2] arguing that "Berlusconism must be elaborated",[87] and that the national day of mourning was "disrespectful toward the majority" who opposed him.[88] Her views were shared by other individuals, including among others Andrea Crisanti, Luigi de Magistris, and Tomaso Montanari.[89][90][nb 7]
Notes
^For the circolare in question, see Bindi, Rosy (2 December 1996). "Circolare Bindi del 2 dicembre 1996". Tactical Media Crew (in Italian). Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^For the circolare in question, see Bindi, Rosy (15 February 1999). "Circolare Bindi del 15 febbraio 1999"(PDF). CCDU (in Italian). Archived(PDF) from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^The report read: "The power of intimidation of the ultras fans within the 'stadium territory' is often exercized in ways that reproduce the mafia method; together with this, the condition of apparent extra-territoriality of the curves with respect to the authority has allowed the groups to acquire and strengthen their power towards the sports clubs and their employees or members. ... The situation is further aggravated from the point of view of the clubs, from the social base of the fans themselves, made up of significant contingents of people with criminal convictions, in some cases close to 30% of the total, according to the estimates of the forces of police. In the corners, in fact, the anarchy in the management of spaces, compared to the criteria for assigning seats dictated by the ticket sales system, for the most extreme fans is also functional in making the identification of individuals more difficult, since the mapping of the stadium sectors is effectively prevented on the basis of the match between the name of the buyer and the seat assigned by the computer reservation system. Ultras groups are often made up of individuals with serious criminal records or, in any case, with personal histories characterized by aggressive and antisocial behaviour, ready to give rise to violence, outside the stadium or in the stands, against the opposing fans or against the forces of order, to unsportsmanlike gestures, racist chants, use of smoke bombs or other dangerous instruments or, more generally, to initiatives sanctioned by federal regulations."[52]
^In 2009, Berlusconi's sexist jibes attracted international attention,[65][66][67] including from BBC News,[68] when he referred to Bindi as being "more beautiful than intelligent".[69][70][71] It led about 100,000 women to protest Berlusconi,[72] as part of the "I'm not at your disposal" campaign in support of Bindi.[73][74][75] In 2010, during a visit to the private Università degli Studi eCampus in Novedrate, Berlusconi again insulted Bindi. Referring to some female students who had been invited by email, Berlusconi said: "Here are some beautiful girls who have graduated with maximum marks and they don't look like Rosy Bindi."[76] Bindi responded: "I congratulate the students who have graduated. As for the Prime Minister's remarks, I will only note, sadly, that among the many signs that his rule is coming to an end we now have this repeatedly wearing evidence of his vulgarity."[76] That same year, Bindi was also the subject of a joke by Berlusconi that ended in a bestemmia.[77] When Berlusconi died in June 2023, she recalled: "['I'm not a woman at your disposal'] was an unthought reaction, they are words that come out because you have them inside. I never made peace or met Berlusconi again after that episode, he never apologized but I have no regrets, I don't know if I would have accepted his apologies."[78]
^One of Berlusconi's sexist jibs towards Bindi was on an on-air broadcast of Porta a Porta on 7 October 2009, when Berlusconi sarcastically told Bindi that she was more beautiful than intelligent,[81] to which Bindi replied that she was not a woman at his disposal.[82] Sgarbi later stated that this wording was his own idea, which he had elaborated with Mino Martinazzoli during the 1990s.[83]
^As a host on Un giorno da pecora on Rai Radio 1, Bindi stated that she agreed with a state funeral but had reservations about national mourning. She explained: "The accounts of Berlusconism were not made when he was alive, I hope they will be made now. Berlusconi was not just a politician, he was an entrepreneur in a certain way, it brings with it many mysteries and I cannot extol its entrepreneurial abilities. ... If he hadn't had the protection of politics he wouldn't have been a great entrepreneur. ... State funerals are planned and it is right that there should be but national mourning for a divisive person like Berlusconi was, in my opinion, not an appropriate choice."[91] On the La7 TV programme Tagadà, Bindi criticized the state funeral of Berlusconi, saying that state funerals are for people who united, not divided, the country.[92] She said: "Prodi is right to go, it's a sign of respect for the institutions. I wish Berlusconi to rest in peace, I know what it means for him to lose his parents: there is understanding for the man but the sanctification that is happening in Rai does not correspond to the truth.[93][94] She further stated: "He was the first populist of this country. He certainly wasn't a promoter of women, on the contrary he used them in every sense. He told me I was more beautiful than intelligent. The sense of ownership he had towards institutions was identical to that towards women. He was in love with himself and anyone who was not at his disposal, or the subject of his fascination, did not fall into his good graces."[95][96]
^ abcdefg"Bindi, Rosy". Treccani (in Italian). 2013. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2024. Updated through the years.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^"N/A". L'Espresso (in Italian). Vol. 51, no. 47–51. p. 88. ISSN0423-4243.
^Pallanti, Stefano (1 September 1999). "Deontologia, ECT e propaganda". Official Journal of the Italian Society of Psychopathology (in Italian). ISSN1592-1107. Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^Zampini, Massimo (12 December 2023). "2017. L'intercettazione inventata". Juventus. Un'ossessione italiana (in Italian). Milan: Baldini+Castoldi. pp. 157–162. ISBN979-12-5494-564-3. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024 – via Google Books.
^"N/A". The Irish Times. 21 October 2009. ISSN0791-5144. Archived from the original on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2024. In time, historians are sure to devote much time and space to the figure of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. But could it be that they will attribute to the Italian prime minister the merit of having, however inadvertently, sparked the renaissance of Italian feminism? The prime minister would appear to have disturbed the slumbering dragon of Italian feminism which, for all that it was radical and outspoken in the Sixties and Seventies, has almost disappeared from the stage of public life in the last 20 years. Rome daily La Repubblica reported yesterday that more than 98,000 women have signed an online petition deploring the 73-year-old Berlusconi's 'offensive', male-chauvinist attitudes. The incident that sparked the protest came, as so often in modern Italian politics, in the context of a TV current affairs programme. Speaking via telephone to RAI 1 talk show Porta A Porta on the evening two weeks ago that the constitutional court stripped him of his immunity from prosecution, the prime minister had an altercation with one of the studio guests, Rosy Bindi (58), the former health minister in Romano Prodi's government. 'You are increasingly more beautiful than you are intelligent,' said Berlusconi in a remark Italians immediately understood to be both sarcastic and offensive. A visibly offended Ms Bindi replied she was not 'a woman at your disposal' in an obvious reference to allegations that Berlusconi last winter held orgies involving prostitutes in his private residences in Rome and Sardinia. Last April, Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario announced she was seeking a divorce, saying she did not want to live with a man who 'consorts with minors', a reference to the fact that her husband turned up at the 18th birthday party of Neapolitan Noemi Letizia, an aspiring actress/model who refers to Berlusconi as 'Papi' (Daddykins). In an open letter to La Repubblica the day after the programme, three women – Paris-based philosophy professor Michela Marzano, journalist Barbara Spinelli and Columbia University politics lecturer Nadia Urbinati – expressed their indignation about Berlusconi's treatment of women. 'It is by now well evident that a woman's body has become a major political weapon in the armoury of the prime minister. He sees women as physically seductive, pretty young things, totally submissive to the Big Boss's will. We protest against this cretinisation of women, of politics and of democracy. This man offends women and democracy. Let's stop him.' That open letter has become a petition signed by more than 98,000 women. Could it be that Berlusconi has this time taken on an opponent too imposing, even for him?
