Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Wednesday (12) appointed career diplomat Elisabetta Belloni as head of the secret services, making her the first woman to hold that position.
Belloni, 62 years old, will head the Department of Information for Security (DIS), replacing Gennaro Vecchione, according to an official statement.
The DIS supervises the activities of national and foreign security and information bodies, which are mainly concerned with counterintelligence.
Belloni held several prestigious positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before being appointed general secretary of that department in 2016.
In the mid-2000s, he headed the Ministry's Crisis Unit, responsible for operations relating to Italians taken hostage, injured or killed abroad, in attacks or natural disasters.
Among his efforts, he faced negotiations for the release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, from the newspaper La Repubblica, kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2007, and coordinated the first searches for missing Italians during the tsunami in Thailand in December 2004.
In 2018, his name was mentioned by the Italian press to lead a possible government of technocrats, when political parties were unable to reach an agreement after the legislatures. (AFP)
FOLLOW-US
