Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
Born in Melito di Porto Salvo in Reggio Calabria Province in 1982, Maria Tripodi currently serves as Italy’s undersecretary of state for foreign affairs and international cooperation. She graduated in iInternational and European community political studies, specializing in international relations, from the Sapienza University of Rome. In July 2022, she obtained a master’s degree in economic security, geopolitics and intelligence from the Italian Society for International Organizations.
She is a former member of the Italian Society of Military History and a consultant to public and private institutions. In Italy's 16th Legislature, she was the Popolo della Libertà party's expert in the Chamber of Deputies in the drafting of bills and legal opinions.
She has held various coordination and liaison roles with regional government bodies. She covered topics such as international relations with the European Union, European funds, maritime and Mediterranean regions, cooperation with developing countries and migration flows with the State-Regions Conference, the foremost body for political negotiations between the Italian state’s central government and regional authorities.
Her long career of political activism dates from 2005, when she joined Forza Italia Giovani, the party’s youth wing, serving in a number of roles focused on the coordination of election campaigns.
In 2007, she was elected to Lazio Youth Forum, where she helped formulate regional policies on living and working conditions for young people.
In 2010, she was appointed national head of the Organization Sector of the Italian youth movement, a position she held continuously until the 2018 Youth Congress.
In 2011, she was elected deputy national secretary of the Young Italians group of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Brussels, which was awarded the European Charlemagne Youth Prize for projects aiming to involve young people and foster their engagement with community institutions.
In the 2014 European elections, she was nominated to represent the youth movement in the European Parliament for the Southern Italy constituency.
Since 2015, she has been a member of the Council of Presidents of Youth (EPP), which comprises 64 youth organizations representing centre-right political parties from 40 European countries.
In the 2018 Italian general election, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Calabria constituency. She was then elected Forza Italia group leader for the chamber’s Standing Committee on defense.
She was subsequently appointed as a member of the Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the death of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
In the 2022 general election, she was one of the youngest candidates for the Italian Senate coming first among the non elected Forza Italia members in the Calabria constituency.
