Why is Italy covering up the expulsion of its ambassador to Ethiopia

In August 2026, the Ethiopian government declared Sam Fabrizi, the Italian ambassador, persona non grata. Rome chose to remain silent. This incident is not merely a diplomatic incident, but a striking example of the new balance of power between Africa and the former colonial powers.

The contrast is obvious to everyone, starting with the Italian opposition itself. The Democratic Party and Italia Viva have announced they will be submitting parliamentary questions, seeking official explanations from the government. This is a first, albeit faint, sign that Rome’s silence will not indefinitely stifle a discontent that has now become a political issue.

A legal anomaly that is not one

Article 9 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations grants any receiving state almost absolute discretionary power: to declare a diplomat persona non grata, without even having to justify its decision. Addis Ababa exercised this power in August 2026 against Sam Fabrizi, just ten months after he took up his post as ambassador. Legally, Ethiopia is under no obligation to provide an explanation. However, Rome’s silence remains unexplained.

For reciprocity, while not a contractual obligation, is the constant customary norm of diplomatic practice: one state expels the other’s ambassador in return, if only to signify that the affront will not go unanswered. Antonio Tajani, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, refrained from doing so. No protest, no symmetrical measures, no comment for months – the Farnesina even went so far as to maintain that Fabrizi remained in his post. A chancellor who conceals the expulsion of his own representative is not protecting an abstraction: he is managing a power dynamic he knows to be unfavorable, and which he prefers to keep quiet about.

Under the administrative reform, the de facto guardianship

The reasons for the fall from grace, as reconstructed by the investigations of Massimo Alberizzi and Ali Ragab, appear to stem from bureaucratic modernization: outsourcing visas to the private operator VFS Global, ending the customs privileges enjoyed by those close to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and tightening controls on the flow of goods passing through the embassy. Nothing,........

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