Former Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has died at the
age of 67.
He had been battling a serious illness for some time.
Roberto Maroni
was born in Varese on 15 March 1955
.
Married, two children, law graduate, lawyer, he 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 and played the saxophone in a band.
Considered Bossi's right-hand man and number two in the League, Maroni has been part of the Lombard League since its foundation.
He shared the beginnings of the Northern League with Umberto Bossi: three times minister, deputy prime minister, governor of the Lombardy Region, he was also federal secretary of the League.
"
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 were a great husband, father and friend" .
Thus the family communicated on Roberto Maroni's Facebook page the death of the former minister which took place in the house of Lozza, a town in the Varese area.
Since 2021, when he discovered the disease that led to his death, he had retired from active politics.
"Great secretary, super minister, excellent governor, always and forever Northern League supporter. Fair winds Roberto".
The leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini
writes it on social media,
commenting on the disappearance of Roberto Maroni.
"I start from the memory of Roberto, whose funeral will be on Friday morning in Varese - Salvini said later at the press conference on the maneuver -. For me and for the whole League, the agenda and the list of priorities change: the whole Northern League community will be physically or ideally Friday morning in Varese".
For Maroni, the meeting in 1979 with Umberto Bossi changed his life: if 'he is the father of the League, I am its mother', he explained.
And from that day on, politics became her job.
Maroni is among the 80 Lega supporters who represented the League for the first time in parliament in 1992, then became Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister in 1994, Minister of Labor in 2001 and again Minister of the Interior in 2008 again with Silvio Berlusconi as president of the Council, to finally close his career in the institutions as president of the
Lombardy Region from 2013 to 2018.
He had announced his candidacy to become mayor of Varese but illness forced him to give up a year ago.
He was always in the League all his life, of which he was the founder and secretary with not always easy relationships with both Umberto Bossi and Matteo Salvini.
Federalist but not secessionist, moderate tones but always with great passion, listening to militants and hostility towards any 'magic circle' were the characteristics of a man who, even in his last interview with Corriere della Sera, defined himself as ' a dreamer'.
Because in addition to the 'vaffa' of the barbarian, according to him the Northern League militant has always had 'a dream, that is, a feasible project unlike utopia'.
Numerous bipartisan certificates of esteem and condolences are coming from the political world in these hours.
The President of the Republic Mattarella has sent a message to the family members.
With tears in his eyes, the
Economy Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, recalled Maroni at the press conference on the manoeuvre, calling him 'Bobo' in a friendly way.
The bonus renewed in the manoeuvre, which provides for a 10% increase for those who remain in work even if they meet the requirements for retirement, 'is his work, not mine'.
