Habemus delegam. Giuseppe Conte has chosen his diplomatic advisor, ambassador Pietro Benassi , as the delegated authority for the Italian 007 . The appointment as Undersecretary of State of the Prime Minister’s Office, after informing Copasir, was made official by a CDM that began at 10 pm on Thursday evening. This unlocks an impasse that has played a not secondary role in the consummate government crisis. The transfer of the proxy to intelligence was in fact one of the conditions set by Matteo Renzi to remain in the majority.
Now the delegation is there, and it bears the name of the man closest to the premier in foreign policy. Conte had announced the choice of “a person of trust”, and focused on those who recommended him at Palazzo Chigi for more than two years, playing a leading role in the preparation and success of many international visits and summits. Roman, 62, Benassi boasts a long diplomatic career that began at the Farnesina in the late 1980s, from Havana to Warsaw to Brussels. Italian ambassador to Tunis from 2009 to 2013, he headed the embassy in Berlin from 2014 to 2018.
Then the call to Piazza Colonna, as diplomatic adviser. Or, to put it in the American way, “National security advisor”. In that role, between a summit in Italy and a mission abroad, he built a wide network of relationships that added to his excellent relations with the German diplomatic and political world. Starting with the American National Security Council (Nsc) and two of the three advisers who followed one another with Donald Trump at the White House, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien . A custom that Benassi had also and above all with the last tenant of Villa Taverna, the outgoing American ambassador Lewis Eisenberg .
As his last assignment he was entrusted with the role of Sherpa of the two major international events for Italy in 2021: the presidency of the G20 and Cop26. “It will be a great showcase for Italy,” he wrote in an analysis for the November issue of Formiche. Host of an Ants event at the end of November, he then anticipated that “reciprocity in procurement or the regulation of international trade between major players such as the EU and China will be at the center of the debate”.
In short, national security is a matter known to Benassi. As you know, his relations are more than cordial with the leaders of the Italian 007s, by the director general of Dis Gennaro Vecchioneto the directors of Aisi and Aise. Coordinating the work of intelligence in the midst of the pandemic, even if, it must be remembered, under the direction of the premier, as required by the law on the sector 124/2007, is not a walk in the park. The ambassador is well acquainted with many of the burning files on the intelligence desk.
This is the case of cyber security and the 5G network, which he has personally dealt with several times together with his counterparts from allied countries. Like when, last July, he met in Paris on the occasion of Bastille Day with O’Brien and his French, German and English colleagues to discuss the presence in 5G of Chinese companies such as Huawei or Zte.
Benassi is not the first diplomat to assume a top role in Italian intelligence. Before him, ambassador Giampiero Massolo , now president of ISPI and Fincantieri , had been in the role of general director of Dis . An ambassador, William Burns , has been chosen by the new US president Joe Biden to lead the CIA.
