Former Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has died

He had been Minister of the Interior and of Labour, secretary of the League and governor of Lombardy. Roberto Maroni died at the age of 67 on November 22nd. He had been ill for some time. This is the message from the families: «Last night at 4 o’clock our dear Bobo left us. To those who asked him how he was, even in his last moments, he always replied “fine”. You were so Bobo, an incurable optimist. You have been a great husband, father and friend.” the family added the words of a poem by Emily Dickinson: «He who is loved knows no death, because love is immortality, or rather, it is divine substance».

He was born in Varese on March 15, 1955. He has always been one of the pillars of the League, but always with an independent voice. Married, two children, graduated in law, he was a lawyer and had been head of the legal department of the Italian office of a US multinational. A Milan fan, Maroni also had a passion for music. He played the saxophone, he loved soul.

Considered the right arm of Umberto Bossi, met in 1979, was provincial secretary of the League in Varese, city councilor in the city before joining the national council of the Lombard League. Since 1992 in Parliament elected with almost thirty thousand preferential votes in the Como-Sondrio-Varese constituency.

The turning point in the 1994 elections in which he was re-elected to the Chamber and became, in the Berlusconi government, the role of deputy prime minister and interior minister, the non-Christian prime minister. He says no to the League’s first break with Berlusconi and remains isolated in the party before mending relations with Bossi. He will always be in the party, but always with one foot out: three times minister and once deputy prime minister, self-resigned secretary of the League and also as governor of Lombardy he did not reapply. Bossi called it a kite that stays away from whoever is holding the string.

In the 1996 the only sentence of his life for having bitten into the calf of one of the policemen who were searching via Bellerio. As Minister of the Interior, his first declaration was: «The Federalist League, with a Northern League member at the Viminale, becomes the guarantor of the unity of Italy».

Minister of Labor in 2001 and again Minister of the Interior in 2008 always with Silvio Berlusconi Prime Minister. His career in the institutions ended as president of the Lombardy Region from 2013 to 2018, strongly desired by Berlusconi himself. He had announced his candidacy to become mayor of Varese but his illness forced him to give up a year ago, in 2021, when he retired from active politics.

Over the years he has moved away from Bossi for his personalist management of the party. The estrangement became clear in 2012 when the then treasurer of the League, Francesco Belsito, was investigated for his management of electoral reimbursements received by the party and used for personal expenses by the Bossi family. With Matteo Salvini there were many clashes.

Just a month ago had presented The Interior Ministry will explode, published by Mursia Editore, written with Carlo Brambilla. In the last interview with Corriere della Sera he had talked a lot about politics and in particular about the League and the possible secretary. «I won’t name names, but I have a very clear profile of him: he must be that of a moderate, competent and with great passion. And then he must stay away from any magic circle and listen more to the real militants ». His preferences: Giorgetti, Zaia, Fedriga. «I remained a dreamer. Politics today is very different, but I think it takes a good dose of passion to do one’s job well. And I’m talking above all about doing! Very often today doing is put in the background, it seems that only someone cares. For a politician today, the job is mainly to communicate by flooding social networks, even TikTok ». Condolence messages are bipartisan.

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