European Parliament President David Sassoli Dies in Italy

He was 65 years old and had been struggling for the past two weeks with complications in his immune system.

European Parliament President David Sassoli has died at the age of 65, reports “BBC News Ukraine”.

The former Italian journalist and center-left politician had been seriously ill for more than two weeks.

At the end of December, Sassoli was hospitalized in Italy due to complications with his immune system.

He died on the morning of January 11 at a hospital in Aviano, his spokesman Roberto Cuillo said.

In September, Sassoli was taken to a hospital in Strasbourg, where he underwent treatment for severe pneumonia. In November, he returned to work.

At the time, he said his pneumonia had been caused by “Legionnaires’ disease,” but expressed doubt that he could have caught it in parliament, despite the recent history of outbreaks in the institution.  

The vote to elect a new European Parliament president is scheduled for the end of this month. Sassoli had said earlier that he would not seek re-election.

The former television news anchor became president of the parliament, which has 705 deputies from all EU countries, in July 2019.

This role is considered one of the most important in the integration bloc and includes chairing sessions and overseeing the activities of the parliament.

He defeated three other candidates for the role, and in his victory speech he called on the EU to return to the ideas of its founding fathers, who replaced war and nationalism with peace and equality.

David Sassoli left a thirty-year career in journalism and became a member of the European Parliament from the Democratic Party of Italy in 2009.

He was a member of the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest group in parliament.

“What a huge shock and a great loss. I am deeply upset,” said MEP Ismail Ertug.

Another MEP, Paolo Borchia, expressed condolences to the Sassoli family and said the news had stunned him.