Paolo Gentiloni

The Honourable Paolo Gentiloni MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 31 October 2014
Prime Minister	Matteo Renzi
Preceded by	Federica Mogherini
Minister of Communications
In office 17 May 2006 – 8 May 2008
Prime Minister	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Mario Landolfi
Succeeded by	Claudio Scajola (Economic Development)
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 April 2006
Constituency	Lazio 1
In office 30 May 2001 – 27 April 2006
Constituency	Piedmont 2
Personal details
Born	Paolo Gentiloni Silveri 22 November 1954 Rome, Italy
Political party	Democratic Party (2007–present)
Other political affiliations	The Daisy (2002–2007)
Alma mater	Sapienza University
Religion	Roman Catholicism[1]

Paolo Gentiloni Silveri^[2] (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpaːolo dʒentiˈloːni]; born 22 November 1954 in Rome) is an Italian politician, member of the Democratic Party and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 31 October 2014.^[3] He was also Minister of Communications during the government of Romano Prodi.

Early life and family

A descendant of Count Gentiloni Silverj, he is related to Italian politician Vincenzo Ottorino Gentiloni, leader of the right-wing Catholic Electoral Union and a key ally of the long-time Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti. He has the title of Nobile of Filottrano, Nobile of Cingoli and Nobile of Macerata.

He attended the Classical Lyceum Torquato Tasso in Rome and graduated in political sciences at the La Sapienza University; Gentiloni is a professional journalist.

Political career

Gentiloni was a member of the Student Movement (Movimento Studentesco), a left-wing youth organization led by Mario Capanna; when Capanna founded Proletarian Democracy party, Gentiloni did not follow him, and joined the Workers' Movement for Socialism. During this years he became a close friend of Chicco Testa who helped Gentiloni to become director of La Nuova Ecologia ("The New Ecology"), the official newspaper of Legambiente.

As director of this ecologist newspaper he met the young leader of Federation of the Greens, Francesco Rutelli. In 1993 he became Rutelli’s spokesman during his campaign to become Mayor of Rome; after the election, which saw a strong victory of Rutelli against the right-wing coalition led by Gianfranco Fini, Gentiloni was appointed Jubilee and Tourism Councillor in the Rome City Council. He has coordinated numerous election campaigns and in 2002 he was a founding member of the The Daisy party, being the party’s communications spokesman for five years.^[4]

After the 2001 general election, he was elected Member of Parliament and during the XIV legislature he was Chairman of the Broadcasting Services Watchdog Committee. He was re-elected in the 2006 election as a member of The Olive Tree, the political coalition led by the Bolognese economist Romano Prodi, who had been Prime Minister also between 1996 and 1998. After the centre-left's victory Gentiloni has been appointed Minister for Communications in Prodi second government.

Gentiloni was one of the 45 members of the national founding committee of the Democratic Party in 2007, formed by the union of the democratic socialists Democrats of the Left and the Christian leftist The Daisy. He was re-elected in the 2008 general election, which saw the win of the conservative coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi.

On 6 April 2013 he ran in the primary election to select the center-left candidate for Mayor of Rome, arriving third after Ignazio Marino, who will become Mayor and the journalist David Sassoli.^[5]

Gentiloni was elected again the Chamber of Deputies in the 2013 general election, in the centre-left coalition Italy. Common Good led by Pier Luigi Bersani, Secretary of the PD.

In 2013, after Bersani's resignation as Secretary, Gentiloni supported the young Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, in the primary election.

Foreign Affairs Minister

Gentiloni with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome, 2014.

On 31 October 2014 he was appointed Foreign Affairs Minister by the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi; Gentiloni succeeded Federica Mogherini, who became High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.^[6]

On 13 February 2015, during an interview on Sky TG24, Gentiloni stated that "if needed, Italy will be ready to fight in Libya against the Islamic State, because the Italian government can not accept the idea that there is an active terrorist threat only a few hours from Italy by boat."^[7] The following day Gentiloni was threatened by ISIL, which accused him of being a crusader, minister of an enemy country.^[8]

In March 2015 Gentiloni visited Mexico and Cuba, where he met President Raúl Castro, ensuring the Italian support for the normalization of the relations between Cuba and the United States.^[9]

On 11 July 2015, a car bomb explodes outside the Italian consulate in the Egyptian capital Cairo resulting in at least one death and four people injured, responsibility was claimed by ISIS.^[10][11][12] On the same day Gentiloni stated that "Italy will be not intimidated" and will continue the fight against terrorism.^[13]

In December 2015, Gentiloni hosted in Rome a peace conference with the representatives from both governments of Libya involved in the civil war, but also from the United Nations, the United States and Russia.^[14]

During his ministry, Gentiloni had to face the murder of Giulio Regeni, an Italian Cambridge University graduate student killed in Cairo following his abduction on January 25, 2016.^[15] Giulio Regeni was a PhD student at Girton College, Cambridge,^[16] researching Egypt's independent trade unions.^[17]

Due to Regeni's research activities and left-wing political leanings, the security services of el-Sisi's government are strongly suspected of involvement in his murder,^[18] although Egypt's media and government deny this and claim secret undercover agents belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood carried out the crime in order to embarrass the Egyptian government and destabilize relations between Italy and Egypt.^[19][20]

On March 10, 2016, the European Parliament in Strasbourg passed a motion for a resolution condemning the torture and killing of Giulio Regeni and the ongoing human rights abuses of the al-Sisi government in Egypt. The resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority.^[21]

References

1. "L'ascesa di Paolo Gentiloni, dalla Margherita alla Farnesina" [Paolo Gentiloni's rise: from the Daisy to the Farnesina]. La Repubblica (in Italian) (Rome: Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso). 31 October 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
2. "Camera dei Deputati- Paolo Gentiloni Silveri". Camera dei Deputati - Paolo Gentiloni Silveri.
3. Chi è Paolo Gentiloni, nuovo ministro degli esteri
4. Profilo personale.
5. Primarie Pd, a Roma stravince Marino: secondo Sassoli, terzo Gentiloni
6. Gentiloni giura al Quirinale, è il nuovo ministro degli Esteri: "Governo dev'essere all'altezza"
7. Italy "ready to fight" in Libya if needed - foreign minister
8. Terrorismo, radio dello Stato islamico cita Gentiloni: "Ministro dell'Italia crociata"
9. Gentiloni incontra Raúl Castro a Cuba
10. "ISIS claims responsibility for bomb attack against Italian consulate in Cairo | News , Middle East". The Daily Star. 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
11. "Islamic State 'behind blast' at Italian consulate in Cairo - BBC News". Bbc.com. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
12. "1 dead in car bomb blast at Italian Consulate in Egypt - CNN.com". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
13. Italy not 'intimidated' by Cairo consulate attack: Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni
14. "Heads of rival Libyan parliaments meet in Malta, seek more time for unity government". Times of Malta. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
15. "Italian student found dead in Cairo 'killed by violent blow to the head'". The Guardian.
16. "Cambridge University student Giulio Regeni 'was tortured and suffered burns' in Egypt, claim reports". Cambridge News.
17. "Italy Summons Egyptian Ambassador Over Death of Student in Cairo". The Wall Street Journal. 4 February 2016.
18. "Suspicion falls on Egypt’s security forces after the violent death of a young Italian". The Economist. 17 February 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
19. "Egypt: Italian's killers may have had criminal or revenge motive". BBC News. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
20. "Egypt: Egypt president suggests his political enemies murdered Italian student". The Guardian. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
21. "European parliament condemns killing of Giulio Regeni in Egypt". The Guardian. 10 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-11.

External links

• Personal Site (Italian)