Paolo Gentiloni was sworn in
Friday as Italy's new foreign minister.
He replaces Federica Mogherini, who quit the post Friday
as she is poised to become the European Union's new high
representative for foreign affairs and security policy on
Saturday.
Gentiloni and Mogherini are both senior members of Premier
Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
"I thank President Giorgio Napolitano and Premier Matteo
Renzi," the new minister said. "I know this is a great
responsibility. We will work in continuity with Federica
Mogherini".
The 59-year-old former communications minister will likely
address the Senate for the first time in his new guise as
foreign minister on November 6, sources said.
A native of Rome and a journalist by trade, Gentiloni in
his youth joined the Party of Proletarian Unity (PDUP), which
combined extreme left, socialist and Catholic elements.
He later grew into more moderate views, becoming a founding
member of centre-left party La Margherita (The Daisy) in 2002.
The Daisy eventually merged into what would become the
now-ruling PD, with Gentiloni as one of the 45 members of its
national founding committee in 2007.
The former editor of The New Ecology, the monthly magazine
of leading environmentalist organization Legambiente, Gentiloni
became a Rome city councilor and then spokesman to newly-elected
Mayor Francesco Rutelli in 1993.
In 2001, when Rutelli finished his second term in office,
he was elected to the Lower House of parliament and became
chairman of the Broadcasting Services Watchdog Committee in
2005.
Re-elected as an MP in 2006, he became communications
minister during the center-left government of Romano Prodi.
Within the PD, he was among the first of the old guard to side
with Renzi. He ran in the 2012 PD primaries for Rome mayor,
which were won by current Mayor Ignazio Marino
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