ROME - Elisabetta Belloni has become the first woman in charge of Italy’s Department of Information Security (DIS) after her nomination by Prime Minister Mario Draghi. She replaces the man appointed by previous Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Gennaro Vecchione, who is leaving the post before the anticipated end of his mandate, due to end this summer.

  DIS is one of the three organs of the Italian secret services, along with the External and Internal Information and Security Agencies (AISE and AISI).

  Draghi also confirmed the one year extension of Mario Parente’s term as head of AISI.

  Belloni, 62, has previously occupied several roles never before held by a woman, including head of the the Foreign Ministry's Crisis Unit, and Chief of Staff and then Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry. She studied at the Massimiliano Massimo Institute in Rome, Draghi's alma mater, and before joining the Foreign Ministry was a diplomat in Vienna and Bratislava.

  Belloni’s appointment has been praised by Matteo Renzi, the leader of Italia Viva, and the League, for putting an end to the supposedly political appointments of Conte’s premiership. League sources have described her appointment as “the umpteenth signal of discontinuity with respect to the choices of Conte and the 5 Star Movement.” Renzi called it “an excellent choice for Italian institutions.”

  Several PD and M5S politicians also spoke highly of Belloni, with Enrico Borghi, Luigi Di Maio and Debora Serracchiani. 

  Vito Crimi, the acting leader of M5S, said however, that “today’s change to the leader of DIS comes in a delicate period of tension despite the role of the president of COPASIR [the parliamentary body that oversees Italian intelligence].” His statement continued, “tensions related to the fact that today we are faced with an anomaly. The role of the President of COPASIR is strategic and if the law indicates that it must be assigned to a member of the opposition this is not accidental, but is for a precise reason.” 

  The current President is Raffaele Volpi, a League Deputy - the “tensions” arise from the fact that the League are currently one of the parties of the coalition government.

  In Belloni’s place as Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, Ettore Sequi was nominated, the current Chief of Staff. 

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