Elena Basile

Elena Basile (born 26 December 1959) is a former Italian diplomat and author. From 2013 to 2021, she served as ambassador, whilst being a pro-tempore head of mission, to Sweden and Belgium, and in 2023 she left the diplomatic service with the rank of plenipotentiary.

Life

Diplomatic career Basile was born on 26 December 1959 in Naples. After graduating from the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in 1982, she joined the foreign service in 1985. She served for some years in Madagascar as first commercial secretary at the Italian embassy in Antananarivo and then as deputy consul in Toronto.

From 1999 to 2002 she was assigned to the Italian Embassy in Budapest, and from 2003 to 2007 in Lisbon. In 2008, she was head of the OSCE section of the of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, From 2013 to 2017 she served as ambassador in Sweden, and from 2017 to 2021 in Belgium.

In 2023 she left the diplomatic service with the rank of minister plenipotentiary.

Columnist and commentator Between 2022 and 2023 Basile wrote several articles for Il Fatto quotidiano under the pseudonym "Ipazia", some of which were criticised as pro-Russian. In one of them she blamed Ukraine for the worsening of Russia–Ukraine relations, and accused the Ukrainian government of having "sent 250,000 young people to their death at the behest of NATO". Her views sparked controversy in July 2023, when she revealed her identity behind Ipazia.

In February 2024, Basile posted a video on Facebook criticising Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre for statements that Segre had not made. According to Basile, during the Gaza war Segre had expressed solidarity exclusively with Jewish children, thereby overlooking the suffering of Palestinian children. When Segre's family threatened legal action, Basile admitted her mistake and apologised publicly but was still sued because of the widespread circulation of her video and because her apology was deemed unsatisfactory.

Writer As a writer, Basile made her debut in 1995 with Donne, nient'altro che donne. In 2014, her novel Una vita altrove was a finalist for the Rome Prize. A collection of short stories, Miraggi, published by Castelvecchi in 2018, was translated in French and published in Belgium in 2021. The 2022 novel In famiglia published by won the Premium International Florence Seven Stars for fiction. In 2023 she published the novel Un insolito trio. In 2024 she published L'Occidente e il nemico permanente and Frammenti di Bruxelles.

Honours

Publications

Donne, nient'altro che donne (1995) Editrice Il Ventaglio Una vita altrove (2014) Newton Compton Editori Miraggi (2018) Castelvecchi Editore In famiglia (2022) La Nave di Teseo Editore Un insolito trio (2023) La Lepre Edizioni L'Occidente e il nemico permanente (2024) PaperFIRST