President Mario Draghi has appointed the new Director General of the Italian Secret Services, the ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, in substitution of the prefect Gennaro Vecchione. Belloni is there first woman to hold office and boasts a long curriculum at the Italian embassies abroad.
Who is Elisabetta Belloni
Appointed as the new Director General of the Security Information Department, Elisabetta Belloni is the first woman to lead an intelligence facility. The decision was made by the Prime Minister Mario Draghi who thus found a replacement for the current head of Dis Gennario Vecchione, whose post would expire in 2022. The choice is a discontinuity signal with the Conte government as Vecchione had been renewed in 2020 for two years by the former president at the behest of the Five Stars.
Draghi previously informed the president of Copasir, Raffaele Volpi, of his intention, and thanked the prefect Vecchione for the work done to guarantee the security of the state and institutions. The appointment is arranged after consultation with the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic. The government then confirmed the mandate of Mario Parente at the helm of the Internal Security Agency, after having extended its mandate twice last year.
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Who is Elisabetta Belloni: the curriculum
Elisabetta Belloni was born in Rome in September 1958 and graduated in Political Science at the LUISS University of Rome. His diplomatic career began in 1985 at the Farnesina at the Directorate General for Political Affairs and then, in 1986, he worked at UNIDO in Vienna. From 1989 to 1992, he returned again to the Political Affairs Directorate to follow the work of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), and was Deputy Head of the CSBM (Confidence and Security Building Measures) Delegation in Vienna and, later, member of the Italian delegation to the Helsinki conference on the follow-up of the CSCE.
From 1993 to 1996 he was First Secretary in Vienna at the diplomatic representation at international organizations then, until 1999, he served at the Italian Embassy in Bratislava. In the same year, after returning to Rome, she worked at the Russia Office of the Political Affairs Directorate and in 2000 she was head of the Secretariat at the Directorate for the Countries of Europe. In 2001-2002 he was Head of the Office for Central and Eastern European Countries, while from 2002 to 2004 he was Head of the Secretariat of the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Who is Elisabetta Belloni: the goals achieved
Between 2004 and 2008, when she headed theCrisis unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elisabetta Belloni made herself known for managing the repatriation gods Italian tourists during the tsunami emergency in Southeast Asia and the cases of seizure in Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2008 to 2013 she was general director of development cooperation of the same department and subsequently general director for resources and innovation until 2015.
In the same year it was head of cabinet of the then foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni and from 2016 to today he has held the role of general secretary of the foreign ministry. Precisely due to the experience gained in the field of international relations, Belloni had been taken into consideration for the role of foreign Minister of the Draghi government.
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