Barbara Spinelli died in Rome on Oct. 7, 2026, at 80. Her family announced her death, and ANSA and Rai News independently reported it that day. Her career moved through newspaper reporting, books and elected service in Europe. She was among the founders of the Italian daily La Repubblica and later served as a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019. Across those roles, she spent decades explaining political change to readers and taking part in public life.
Born in Rome in 1946, Spinelli worked in research at the Institute of International Affairs in Rome, Rai News reported. She began her journalism career at Il Globo in the early 1970s. Her first work connected research and reporting, as she moved from studying political developments to describing them for newspaper readers. The newsroom would remain a home for that work through several later assignments and editorial roles.
In 1976, Spinelli helped found La Repubblica and became one of its early contributors. ANSA reported that she remained closely connected to the newspaper for nearly a decade. In the mid-1980s she moved to Paris, where she reported for Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, then later returned to La Repubblica as an editorialist. Her work crossed the familiar line between daily reporting and longer interpretation: she filed from abroad, explained events for Italian readers and developed arguments about the politics behind the news. Much of that work involved reporting from outside Italy before she returned to editorial roles at home.
Her books extended that work beyond newspaper columns. Rai News lists titles including Il sonno della memoria: L’Europa dei totalitarismi, La sovranità assente and Moby Dick o l’ossessione del male. The books’ subjects ranged from Europe’s history and sovereignty to literature and memory. She also continued writing in the press later in life; ANSA reported that she began collaborating with Il Fatto Quotidiano in 2016. Her career therefore ran on two tracks: the steady cadence of journalism and the more sustained space of books.
In 2014, Spinelli was elected to the European Parliament with the L’Altra Europa con Tsipras list. Rai News reported that she served through 2019 and held the vice-chair role on its Committee on Constitutional Affairs. It also reported her work on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. She took up elected service after decades of observing European politics from newspaper offices and correspondence posts.
Acqui Storia’s official record lists Spinelli as a 2002 Testimone del Tempo recipient. The award, established in 1984, recognizes people in culture, politics, journalism, art, science and entertainment whose work has helped illuminate contemporary history and society. During the ceremony, the honoree is interviewed about their role and the events they witnessed firsthand, the organizers say. That design makes testimony part of the recognition, inviting the recipient to reflect on the history encountered through a public life. For a journalist and writer whose career also took her into elected European service, the distinction connected professional work to the history it covered.
Spinelli was the daughter of Altiero Spinelli and Ursula Hirschmann, both associated with the early European federalist movement, according to ANSA and Rai News. Her family history placed her near a major strand of postwar European thought, but her own working life was built through reporting, editing, writing and public service. She moved among newsrooms and institutions over more than five decades, taking on the responsibilities of an elected representative after years of examining political choices as a journalist.
Italian reports said her funeral would be private. In the public record, Spinelli’s titles include correspondent, newspaper co-founder, columnist, author and member of the European Parliament. Each describes a different way of taking part in civic life: observing events, helping build a publication, interpreting news, making an argument in a book and serving in a representative body. Together, those roles show the breadth and reach of her work across journalism, writing and public service over several decades.
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