Rita Borsellino is an anti-
MafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
activist,
SicilianSicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
politician, and sister of the late judge
Paolo BorsellinoPaolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....
, killed by the
CorleonesiThe Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...
in 1992 by a car bomb. She was Leader of the Opposition in the Sicilian Regional Assembly.
Graduated in
PharmaceuticsPharmaceutics is the discipline of pharmacy that deals with all facets of the process of turning a new chemical entity into a medication able to be safely and effectively used by patients in the community. Pharmaceutics is the science of dosage form design...
in 1967, after the death of her brother Rita Borsellino has become one of the most popular anti-mafia activists in
SicilySicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, and founded in 1995
Libera, a civil organization with the main goal to diffuse an anti-mafia culture among the youth Sicilians, of which she is currently vice-president.
In 2005, some minor parties of
The UnionThe Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:...
, mainly from the radical left wing, endorsed her as candidate for the
primary electionThe mechanism of primary elections was used for the first time in Italy by Lega Nord in 1995, but was scarcely used until before the 2005 regional elections, for which the centre-left The Union coalition delegated its potential electors to select candidates for office as President of the Regions of...
. She was then backed also by the
Democrats of the LeftThe Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
, being eventually supported by all the coalition parties, except the Daisy (
Margherita) who presented another candidate,
University of CataniaThe University of Catania is a university located in Catania, Italy, and founded in 1434. It is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy and the 29th oldest university in the world...
's Dean Ferdinando Latteri.
In the primary election, held on December 4, 2005, she then defeated her competitor, and gained the candidacy of the Union for the
regional election of SicilyThe Sicilian regional election of 2006 for the renewal of the Regional Assembly and the Presidency of Sicily was held on 28 May 2006.The election was competed by three competitors: Salvatore Cuffaro, incumbent President and House of Freedoms candidate; Rita Borsellino, candidate of The Union; and...
held on May 28, 2006, where she faced and lost to incumbent governor
Salvatore CuffaroSalvatore "Totò" Cuffaro is an Italian politician, former President of Sicily, currently serving a 7 years sentence for aiding the Mafia...
in the election. In 2008 she ran for the Italian Senate as independent with The Left - The Rainbow, but was not elected. She will head the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
list in the
2009 European electionsElections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history...
.
Since 1998 she is also Chairman of "Associazione Piera Cutino - guarire dalla talassemia", a non-profit foundation that promotes medical research against thalassaemia.
External links
Official website of Rita Borsellino Official website of the Sicilian Primary Election Official website of the organization Libera