The President of the European Parliament has passed away.
(Photo: dpa)
Aviano The news came in the middle of the night: The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, has passed away.
He died on Tuesday at 1:15 a.m. in the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico in Aviano, a clinic in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, said EU Parliament spokesman Roberto Cuillo of the German press agency. The Florence-born social democrat turned 65.
Early in the morning, the first politicians expressed their condolences. “Ciao David, lifelong friend,” wrote Italy’s Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini on Twitter.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also reacted with dismay: “I am deeply saddened by the terrible loss of a great European and a proud Italian”, wrote the German politician on Tuesday on Twitter. “David Sassoli was a sensitive journalist, an excellent President of the European Parliament and, first and foremost, a good friend.” Her thoughts were with Sassoli’s family. In Italian she added: “Rest in peace, dear David!”
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EU Council President Charles Michel praised Sassoli as a “sincere and passionate European”. His human warmth, generosity, warmth and smile would already be missed, wrote Michel on Twitter on Tuesday. He feels sad and moved. Michel expressed his condolences to Sassoli’s family and loved ones.
Sassoli had already been in the hospital for a longer time, as it became known on Monday. A spokesman for the EU Parliament in Brussels had said that the Italian was staying in a clinic in his home country and was being treated there. The stay had become necessary “because of a serious complication due to a dysfunction of the immune system”.
According to the EU Parliament, the President of the Parliament had been in treatment since December 26th. All of his appointments were canceled at the time.
In October, Sassoli already missed a session of parliament because he had a fever. He was previously hospitalized for pneumonia.
The Centro di Riferimento Oncologico hospital in Aviano did not provide any information when asked on Tuesday morning. Spokesman Cuillo said on Twitter that the time and place of the funeral would be announced in the coming hours.
Be over private twitter account Sassoli had condoled on Monday morning on the death of the Italian journalist Silvia Tortora. On December 31, he praised the words of the Italian head of state, Sergio Mattarella, in his New Years address.
Sassoli belonged to the social democratic party Partito Democratico (PD). He had been President of the European Parliament since July 2019. The social democrat replaced his compatriot Antonio Tajani from the conservative Forza Italia. Before that, he held the post of Vice President in the EU institution from 2014 to 2019 and thus worked for around three years (2014 to 2017) as the representative of the then European Parliament President Martin Schulz (SPD).
Before his political career, Sassoli worked as a journalist. The career of the studied political scientist started with smaller daily newspapers. In 1985 he made it to the editorial office of the Roman newspaper “Il Giorno” (The Day). He later ended up on television and even hosted the main news show TG1 on the public broadcaster Rai 1.
Sassoli was, among other things, a critic of the migration policy of many member states. Again and again he advocated the concerns of people on the run. In Italy, migration is a subject of dispute, especially between left and right-wing parties, as a large number of migrants arrive in the Mediterranean country in boats on their flight to get to the EU.
He was also considered a progressive Catholic. According to his party, he was a boy scout and was involved in Catholic youth groups.