At 65 years of age
“Rest in peace, dear David!”: EU Parliament President Sassoli dies in hospital in Italy
David Sassoli speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in December
© Julien Warnand / AFP
On Monday he had condoled on the death of the Italian journalist Silvia Tortora. Now David Sassoli, President of the EU Parliament and author, has died himself – at the age of only 65.
The news came in the middle of the night: The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, is dead. The 65-year-old Italian was on Tuesday at 1:15 am in the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico in Aviano, an oncology center in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , died, announced his spokesman Roberto Cuillo early Tuesday morning on Twitter. Sassoli had been there for more than two weeks “for a serious complication due to a dysfunction of the immune system”, as Cuillo had explained on Monday.
Von der Leyen “deeply saddened” by the death of David Sassoli
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 tweeted: “I am deeply saddened by the terrible loss of a great European and proud Italian. David Sassoli was a sensitive journalist, an excellent President of the European Parliament and, first and foremost, a good friend.” Your thoughts are with Sassoli’s family. In Italian she added: “Rest in peace, dear David!”
EU Council President Charles Michel praised Sassoli as a “sincere and passionate European”. His human warmth, generosity, warmth and smile would already be missed. Michel expressed condolences to Sassoli’s family.
According to Cuillo, Sassoli had already come to the hospital on December 26th, and all of his official appointments have since been canceled. In September he had already been treated for pneumonia and was unable to carry out his duties as President of the EU Parliament for several weeks. He had also had leukemia once before.
On Monday morning, Sassoli had condoled on the death of the Italian journalist Silvia Tortora via his private Twitter account. On December 31, he praised the words of the Italian head of state, Sergio Mattarella, in his New Years address.
The social democrat has held the chairmanship of parliament since the 2019 European elections. His term of office ended this month halfway through the legislative period, as agreed by the EU heads of state and government. Sassoli had already announced that he did not want to run for re-election. According to the Parliament, MEPs should designate his successor during the plenary session in Strasbourg next week Tuesday.
The fact that the social democratic S&D group in parliament decided not to have its own candidate paved the way for the election of the candidate of the conservative European People’s Party, Roberta Metsola. The Maltese is currently one of the vice-presidents of the EU parliament.
A kind of Italian “Mister Tagesschau”
Sassoli was born on May 30, 1956 in Florence, Tuscany. After studying political science, he worked as a journalist, first for newspapers and news agencies and then for Italian public radio.
He quickly developed into a familiar face for millions of Italians when he presented the evening news on Rai Uno – a kind of Italian “Mister Tagesschau”. In 2007 he also became deputy director of the TG1 news program. In 2009 he moved into the EU Parliament for the social democratic Partito Democratico (PD). From 2014 he was one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the EU Chamber of Deputies. In addition to his parliamentary work, Sassoli continued to write as an author of books and guest articles in various daily newspapers and magazines.
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His rise to the position of President of the EU Parliament as the successor to his conservative compatriot Antonio Tajani came as a surprise to many, as Italy will fill two other top positions in 2019 with the current Prime Minister in Rome, Mario Draghi, as head of the European Central Bank and Federica Mogherini as EU foreign representative had. Sassoli made it clear that he saw his election as a sign of the independence of parliament in the power struggle with the governments of the EU states. “I am not a member of the Council,” he said after his election, referring to the representation of the member states.
The “Presidente”, who often spoke in his native Italian, led parliamentary debates with a hard hand, but without verbal outbursts. His two and a half year term of office was marked by the corona pandemic. So he had to coordinate the conversion of parliamentary operations to teleworking. His organizational skills earned him respect among MPs.
As a sign of his solidarity in the midst of the crisis, he made the orphaned premises of Parliament available in both Strasbourg and Brussels to prepare meals for families in need and set up a Covid-19 test center.
He leaves two children. “The date and place of the funeral will be announced in the next few hours,” wrote Sassoli’s spokesman on Twitter.