As a member of the Democratic Party, Boschi has served as Minister for Constitutional Reforms and Relations with the Parliament, from February 2014 to December 2016, delegated to the implementation of the Government Programme of Renzi Cabinet.

Boschi was born in Montevarchi but raised in Laterina, a small town in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany, where her family has lived for generations; daughter of Pierluigi Boschi, owner of the farm Il Palagio, member of dozens of agricultural and wine associations of the territory, provincial director of Coldiretti, board member of the Camera di Commercio of Arezzo and from 2011 to 2015 director of the Banca Etruria, of which by 2014 was also vice-president, and Stefania Agresti, a headmaster who served three terms in the City Council of Laterina, the last of which as vice-mayor; Stefania Agresti was also a candidate in 2010 regional election in Tuscany for the Democratic Party, but she was not elected.

Moreover, Boschi was a member of the Publiacqua Board, a company in charge of water management for the entire province of Florence from 2009 to 4 June 2013, when she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies.

Boschi entered in politics in 2008, during the primary election to become Mayor of Florence, where she was the spokesman of the committees in support of the candidacy of Michele Ventura, a close collaborator of the social democratic leader Massimo D'Alema.

On 21 February 2014, following the fall of the Enrico Letta government, Boschi was appointed Minister for Constitutional Reforms and Relations with the Parliament in the Renzi Cabinet; on the following day she was sworn in by the President Giorgio Napolitano.

After several amendments to the initial text, the reform passed the examination of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, whose speakers were Senators Anna Finocchiaro (Democrat) and Roberto Calderoli (Lega Nord).

To approve the new electoral law, which was opposed by the Five Star Movement and a minority of his own Democratic Party, the government gained the support of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was still the leader of Forza Italia, despite having been expelled from the Senate due to his sentence for tax evasion.

The Five Star Movement, Forza Italia and some left-wing Democratic Party members strongly opposed this decision, with some seeking to draw comparisons between Renzi and Benito Mussolini.

Among the banks affected by the decision therefore included Banca Etruria, of which Pierluigi Boschi, the father of Maria Elena, was the vice president at the time of receivership in February 2015, while her brother was responsible of cost management, until March 2015.

[28] On 31 March 2016 Federica Guidi, Minister of Economic Development resigned amid allegations that she had sought to shape last year's budget law to favour an oil project from which her partner, Gianluca Gemelli, who was inquired, stood to benefit financially.