July 2025 SUMMARY July 2025 confirms Italy’s proactive agenda-setting across energy security, defence finance and strategic diplomacy. Rome leveraged its G7 visibility to close headline deals—ENI’s 20-year LNG offtake from Venture Global’s CP2 terminal and a EUR 10 bln industrial package for Ukraine’s reconstruction—while Prime Minister Meloni used summits in Algiers and Addis Ababa to couple the Mattei Plan with broader EU outreach to Africa and the Mediterranean. At EU level, Brussels launched strategic-partnership negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council and prolonged Roberto Viola’s mandate at DG CONNECT, ensuring continuity for the DMA/DSA/AI-Act troika. Parliament received a hydrogen-CCS enabling bill and a long-overdue National Mineral Exploration Programme; Under-Secretary Alfredo Mantovano assumed sweeping powers over critical-infrastructure resilience, dovetailing with NATO’s new 5 %-of-GDP force-goal and Italy’s last-minute request for low-cost “SAFE” loans to finance Eurodrone, naval air-defence frigates and war-stockpile replenishment. The annual Golden-Power Report showed a 15 % jump in filings and the first outright veto on a China-linked aerospace JV, while fresh cases, FountainVest’s bid for EuroGroup Laminations and the Pirelli governance saga, signal that FDI screening now shapes automotive and battery value chains as much as telecoms and defence. Intesa Sanpaolo booked a record EUR 5.2 bln H1 profit and raised 2025 guidance, whereas UniCredit abandoned its EUR 10 bln assault on Banco BPM after clashing with Giorgetti’s golden-power clauses—an episode viewed as precedent-setting for future cross-border banking deals. In telecoms, TIM Brasil’s 5G surge lifted group valuation and may finance domestic fibre once the NetCo sale closes. Leonardo deepened its sovereign-cyber pivot by taking control of Finland’s SSH, yet faced potential fallout from the frozen SuperJet venture. Architect Fabio Massimo Saldini assumed dual roles as SIMICO CEO and Olympic Commissioner, raising governance questions on Milan–Cortina 2026 delivery; endocrinologist Andrea Lenzi was parachuted in to reboot the National Research Council; and the cabinet entrusted Patrizia De Luise with steering ENASARCO’s EUR 8 bln welfare fund. INSTITUTIONS GOVERNMENT Tax-Credit Scandal Triggers Second High-Level Exit at Culture Ministry Turmoil deepened at Italy’s Ministry of Culture (MiC) when Nicola Borrelli, Director-General for Cinema and Audiovisual, resigned on 3 July, just 72 hours after Cinecittà chair Chiara Sbarigia stepped down. Borrelli, in post since 2009, faced mounting scrutiny over a fraudulent EUR 8 mln tax credit granted to the non-existent film “Rexal Ford”, now under investigation by Rome prosecutors. The scandal, which exploited fast-track incentives meant to lure international productions, has prompted to draft a decree tightening due-diligence thresholds and capping credits per project. Industry insiders warn that the leadership vacuum threatens Italy’s EUR 1.2 bln screen-production pipeline ahead of the 2026 Winter Games media push. Parliament’s Culture Committee will summon incoming under-secretary Gianmarco Mazzuccato to explain governance lapses and to outline safeguards for the EUR 750 mln cinema fund under the NRRP. Observers note that MiC is now grappling with what one official called an “internal civil war”, as reformists push to digitise audits and traditionalists defend discretionary oversight, leaving the sector in regulatory limbo. Saldini Takes Dual Helm of SIMICO and Olympic Infrastructure Architect Fabio Massimo Saldini has been confirmed both as CEO of state-owned infrastructure firm SIMICO and as the Government’s Extraordinary Commissioner for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Games. He will steward EUR 328 mln in 2025 alone to rescue a foundation that closed 2024 with a EUR 150 mln deficit. While the appointment accelerates contracting for venues and road links, the overlap of supervisory and operational roles has drawn scrutiny. Italy’s anti-corruption authority (ANAC) cleared his CEO post, but urged the cabinet to separate commissioner duties to avoid “controller–controlled” conflicts. Saldini’s ascent, reportedly backed by Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, underscores Rome’s turn toward single-point project management yet revives debate on checks and balances in big-ticket public works. Mantovano Receives Sweeping Mandate over Critical-Infrastructures A 30 June decree, published 22 July, delegates to Under-Secretary Alfredo Mantovano full authority for the “resilience of critical entities,” centralising Italy’s response to hybrid threats across energy, finance, health, telecoms, space and water. The appointment aligns national governance with EU Directive 2022/2557 and supplements a May reorganisation that installed General Franco Federici as inter-ministerial coordinator at Palazzo Chigi.  Mantovano will oversee risk-mapping, public-private drills and incident reporting, plus dovetail resilience planning with the new Defence Cyber Shield. Government sources say a draft national strategy is due by December, setting performance metrics for operators of essential services and clarifying enforcement powers for non-compliance. Business lobbies welcome a single interlocutor but seek tax incentives for retrofit costs; civil-liberty groups caution against opaque data-access provisions. Endocrinologist Andrea Lenzi Appointed President of CNR Research Minister Anna Maria Bernini has named Professor Andrea Lenzi, 72, as the new president of Italy’s National Research Council (CNR) for a two-year term, selecting him from a five-person shortlist cleared by an independent search committee. Lenzi, an emeritus endocrinologist at Sapienza University, chairs UNESCO’s Urban-Health network and the Health City Institute think-tank, and previously led Italy’s University Council and Research-Evaluation Committee.  His unpaid mandate aims to fast-track governance reform and EU-funded tech-transfer programmes after Maria Chiara Carrozza’s term expired. The remaining board seats were filled in June, confirming outgoing Pavia rector Francesco Svelto as vice-president and bringing regional, business-chamber and staff representatives onto a streamlined five-member board. Observers credit Lenzi’s deep political networks  smoothing parliamentary approval, yet caution that his biomedical focus must dovetail with emerging priorities in quantum, AI and space science. STRATEGIC ISSUES DEFENSE Experts Urge Coherent Spending as NATO Sets 5 %-of-GDP Target Following NATO’s The Hague summit, which commits allies to defence outlays of up to 5 % of GDP by 2035, Italian generals and policy analysts caution against a scatter-shot spending spree and call for investment in three priority vectors: integrated air-and-missile defence, resilient space services and cyber-domain protection. Industry body AIAD pegs Italy’s additional requirement at EUR 10–11 bln annually over a decade, urging alignment with EU programmes such as Eurofighter/GCAP spiral upgrades, Eurodrone MALE, the IRIS-T SLM ground-based air-defence network and the forthcoming SAFE common procurement fund.  Former Air-Force chief Leonardo Tricarico warns that hasty