Cristiana Muscardini graduated in philosophy. She was national executive of the National University Action Front, the Italian Social Movement and National Alliance. Between 1980 and 1990, Muscardini was municipal councillor of Milan and, in 1991 she became municipal councilor of Varese. She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1983.
Muscardini became Member of the European Parliament in 1989 and remained an MEP until 2014. During that time she was member of the Technical Group of Independent Members Group, member of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group, member of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats), member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, Vice-Chair of the Committee on International Trade, member of the Delegation for relations with Malta, member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection, member of the Delegation for relations with the Gulf States, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy, member of the Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU), member of the Delegation for relations with Russia, member of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, member of the Delegation to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, member of the Delegation for relations with South Africa, member of the Delegation for relations with Israel, member of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China, member of the Conference of Presidents, member of the Committee on International Trade, member of the Delegation to the EU-Kazakhstan, EU-Kyrgyzstan and EU-Uzbekistan Parliamentary Cooperation Committees, and for relations with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia, member of the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, member of the Delegation for relations with Iraq, member of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean and member of the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union.