Mirella Giai died in her Rosario, Argentina. He would have turned 94 in August. The former Italian politician was the daughter of the partisan commander Giai, who emigrated to South America and returned in 1943 to fight the war in the Garibaldi Brigades of Piedmont and later emigrated again with his family to Rosario, where Mirella lived.
After years of militancy in associations linked to the Italian Communist Party, he worked during the Argentine dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla with the Consul of Italy Enrico Calamai in assisting the expatriation of hundreds of Italians, who were thus rescued from the sad fate of what would later be called the "desaparecidos".
In the 2006 elections she ran for the Senate in South America for the center-left coalition "L'Unione", but was defeated by only 67 votes by Edoardo Pollastri.
She then joined the Movimento Associativo Italiani all'Estero (Maie), being re-nominated in South America in the 2008 elections, in which she was elected senator.

Many who wanted to publicly pay homage to his commitment. "Mirella was an Italian émigré who dedicated her whole life to fighting for Italians around the world and their descendants. I had the honour of being a candidate with you in the 2008 general elections, during which I was elected as a Member of Parliament and you as a Senator. The Italian community in South America has lost a great woman, loved, respected, and with an admirable idealism", recalls Ricardo Merlo, president of Maie.

"Today is a sad day for Italians in Argentina and for the Senate of the Republic who, in the early hours of the day, lost one of the women symbol of our emigration", says Senator Pier Ferdinando Casini, "Until the last moments his commitment and his work have always been aimed at defending the best values of Italy, those who characterized it in the years of political militancy

"I got to know her well during the first electoral campaign of the newborn foreign constituency, both candidates (she in the Senate, I in the Chamber) in the ranks of the Union", recalls instead the deputy elected in South America for the Democratic Party Fabio Porta, "I maintained a relationship of great esteem and admiration with her, meeting her several times during my parliamentary mandate every time I went to Rosario, where he lived with his family. The community of Italians abroad loses an important reference and it is significant that she, daughter of a partisan, has left us a few days after the party she loved most, that of the liberation of Italy from Nazi-fascism".

The President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa also wanted to express his condolences: "I learned the news of the death of Mirella Giai, senator in the XVI legislature, representative of the community of Italians in Latin America. I am sure that the memory of the courage shown in the defense of his compatriots during the period of the dictatorship in Argentina and of his ever renewed commitment to the service of Italians abroad will remain alive".

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