The easy choice for Matteo Renzi would have been to retain Emma Bonino, a fellow Democrat, as foreign minister. Bonino first entered the Italian parliament 38 years ago and has served two stints in the cabinet. Her experience as a former European commissioner could have helped during Italy’s presidency of the Council of Ministers.
Renzi took the tougher option of choosing a 42-year-old member of parliament of six years’ standing and with no ministerial experience, Federica Mogherini. The decision fits a broader generational shift under Renzi, but in Mogherini, Renzi has also chosen someone with plenty of seasoning in politics and policymaking.
Mogherini was active in student politics, serving on the board of the European Youth Forum and young European socialists’ groups. In those, she was particularly active in human rights and in international affairs. Over time, her focus became foreign and defence policy, and she can be expected to be prominent in debates on the Middle East, Afghanistan, NATO, human rights, nuclear issues and – from a pro-Atlanticist starting point – on relations with the United States.
Mogherini has occasionally crossed into the world of think-tanks – she was a fellow of the German Marshall Fund in 2007. But she has chiefly been part of the party-political community of foreign-policymakers, serving in a range of roles in the Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra) and, after the merger of left-wing parties, in the Democratic Party. After entering parliament, representing the Veneto constituency, she swiftly became a member of the Democrats’ national executive and secretary of the parliamentary defence committee.