The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, died in the early hours of Tuesday in hospital in Italy, his spokesperson announced on Twitter.
Sassoli, who was 65-years-old had been in hospital since December 26, where he was hospitalised due to a dysfunction of his immune system. Before that, he had been previously admitted to the hospital with pneumonia caused by Legionnaires disease, where he remained for several weeks.
His hospitalisation had been announced by Cuilo on Monday, who said his official duties would be cancelled. Sadly, Sassoli passed away at 1.15am on Tuesday morning.
The @EP_President David Sassoli passed away at 1.15 am on 11 January at the CRO in Aviano( PN), Italy, where he was hospitalized. The date and place of the funeral will be communicated in the next few hours.
— RobertoCuillo (@robertocuillo) January 11, 2022
“David Sassoli passed away at 1.15 am on January 11 at the CRO in Aviano, Italy, where he was hospitalised,” Roberto Cuillo tweeted.
“The date and place of the funeral will be communicated in the next few hours,” he added.
The European Parliament sits for a five-year term between elections, but the body’s president serves for half that time. Sassoli had already indicated that he would not seek re-election.
On May 30, 1956, he was born in Florence, Italy and worked as a journalist in print and l30 Mayelevision for some three decades. He was elected as a member of the European Parliament in 2009. In 2014, he was both reelected to Parliament and became Vice-President with the second-highest amount of votes ever.
In 2019, he was reelected again and was the proposed as the new president. He was elected to the position with 345 votes in favour, succeeding Antonio Tajani to become the seventh Italian to hold the position.
He was a member of the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second-biggest grouping in the parliament after the centre-right European People’s Party.
His arrival in the chamber was traditionally announced in Italian as “Il Presidente”. Unlike some EU officials, who speak in English and French in public appearances, Sassoli had made a point of using Italian.
Next Tuesday, MEPs are expected to hold the first round of voting for his successor.
Source: euractiv.com
