The changing of the guard is expected within days at the Farnesina. Prime Minister Renzi must indicate the successor to Federica Mogherini, who became Lady Pesc in Europe, at the helm of the Foreign Ministry. It won't be a painless choice: agree on women's quotas, agree on the rejuvenation of the governing class, but Italy needs like hell to find a real foreign minister and not a discolored party official temporarily parked in the glorious halls of the Farnesina.
These reflections circulated in the minds of many yesterday afternoon while the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, spoke to Sioi - the non-profit organization of Palazzetto Venezia in Rome that trains diplomats - to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of his birth. The head of state effectively underlined the importance of foreign policy and pointed out that it is no coincidence that the role of the Prime Minister has grown over the years also on the international front. A beautiful photographic exhibition on Sioi's 70 years recalled how important decisions for Italy's foreign policy took place right in the rooms of Sioi - from NATO membership to that of the EEC - and how those rooms have looked over the years absolute protagonists of foreign policy from De Gasperi to Einaudi, from all the Italian heads of state to leaders of the world scene such as Henry Kissinger and Francois Mitterand and many others.
Unfortunately, noted with a touch of bitterness the president of Sioi and former foreign minister, Franco Frattini, a sign of our times is the evident crisis of leadership. Which fully invests the United States, where President Obama's popularity has never been so low, but also Europe and Italy. The lack of memory and knowledge of the history of international relations is striking in many contemporary leaders. It is to be hoped that these considerations also come to Matteo Renzi's mind as he prepares to choose the new foreign minister.
Listening to Napolitano yesterday at Sioi was Emma Bonino, who has done very well both in foreign affairs and in the European Commission. But, remaining in the female quota, there were also those who remembered the intelligent contribution offered by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs by Marta Dassù.
However, the rumors of the last few hours go in other directions and the prime minister seems to want to disappoint the expectations of a real foreign minister. We hear whispers that the excellent deputy minister Lapo Pistelli will not be promoted to the Farnesina, who is wrong - so to speak - in having been one of Renzi's masters of politics, but that the premier will take into account the female quota and also the balance currents of the Pd. The name circulating to succeed Mogherini is that of the vice president of the Chamber, Marina Sereni, whose international political skills are not known but whose speed in passing from one current of the Democratic Party to another is known, a practice which in in the past she won the minister's seat to other young colleagues of hers.
Nothing personal for heaven's sake, but for the Farnesina there is better and Italy deserves much more. President Renzi, amaze us once again and finally give us a foreign minister worthy of the name.
