“Tigress of the Italian left”, “Miss Parliament” and “Italy’s girlfriend” are some of the epithets that accompany her.
Since emerging on the political scene at the beginning of the decade, Maria Elena Boschi, 35, has had to get used to praise and criticism that highlights her physical attributes rather than her professional attributes.
But while they paid attention to her blonde hair and blue eyes, the minister for Constitutional Reforms and Relations with Parliament paved the way to become the most powerful woman in Italian politics.
Over time, criticism regarding her age disappeared, but sexism occasionally comes back to the fore.
Recently, the newspaper l Mattinale, linked to Silvio Berlusconi's party, published a cartoon showing Maria Elena with open arms and the question “Who wants to enter into a civil union with me?”.
The design refers to the project that authorizes civil unions between homosexuals, which has pushed the minister's negotiating capacity to the limit.
On the cover of magazines
Italian gossip magazines also don't shy away from featuring photos of Maria Elena Boschi in a bikini on the cover, giving her the treatment reserved for TV stars. Furthermore, if someone types “Maria Elena Boschi” on YouTube, for example, some of the first search suggestions will be “hot”, “thighs”, “bikini” or “breast”.
To the sexist attacks, the Italian leftist minister responds with a pun: “Judge me by the reforms, not by the forms”.
It was no surprise that a Congress where 69,2% of members are men and more than 75% are over 40 years old received in February 2014 the appointment of a young woman with little experience to one of the most important positions in the Prime Minister's cabinet. -minister Matteo Renzi.
Newly sworn in, he chose Maria Elena for the hard work of rewriting the Constitution and carrying out his ambitious reformist agenda.
Beginnings in politics
“Mari”, for those close to her, was born on January 24, 1981, in Montevarchi, but grew up in Laterina, a town of 3.500 inhabitants located in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany. He studied at a traditional Catholic school, graduated in Law at the University of Florence and got a job at a renowned law firm.
There he discovered his passion for politics, led by his colleague Francesco Bonifazi, an active member of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), a party currently led by Renzi.
When Renzi took over as mayor of Florence in 2009, he invited her to join the board of directors of the city's water management company, and since then the relationship between the two has only grown closer. Later, Renzi entrusted him with organizing the conference to publicize his political platform.
Mari's participation in the congress, wearing a pink jacket and high-heeled shoes with a leopard print, earned her the nickname “tigress of the Italian left” and freed her from anonymity. In 2013, she was elected deputy for Tuscany, consolidating a dizzying rise to the top of Italian politics.
Rise
When he was called upon to form a new government in 2014, Renzi delegated the portfolio of Constitutional Reforms and Relations with Parliament to Boschi. Your mission? Rewrite the Magna Carta and face one of the most difficult legislatures in Italian history.
Criticism of the appointment was immediate. Opposition members claimed that the role required more experienced politicians. Some appealed to machismo: after the oath, a montage of Boschi bent over to sign the instrument of inauguration and a G-string showing off his pants appeared on the web.
In Parliament, attacks now focus more on the content than the packaging. “Before, there was much more prejudice. Today she still has it, but they respect her because she made herself respected through her work”, adds Italian-Brazilian deputy Renata Bueno, a friend of the minister who is only a year older than her.
With a technical and discreet profile, but always determined, Maria Elena has already taken home important victories, such as the approval of the “Labor Act”, the new electoral law, educational reform and, the jewel in the crown, constitutional reform.
Nicknamed the "Boschi Law," the bill ends the parity bicameral system, drastically reducing the powers of the Senate, and is considered the minister's greatest achievement during her two years in Rome. (See/Ansa).
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