David Sassoli, president of the European Parliament (EP), died on Tuesday as a result of a serious illness, EP spokesman Roberto Cuillo said.
According to Roberto Cuillo’s Twitter message, Sassoli died at a hospital in Aviano, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, at 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday. The date and place of the funeral will be announced in the coming hours, he wrote.
The Cabinet of the President of the European Parliament announced on Monday that the President of the European Parliament had been hospitalized in Italy on 26th December in serious medical condition. He needed treatment because of serious complications due to a malfunction of his immune system, they said. At that time, all its official programs were canceled.
This is not the first time Sassoli has been hospitalized for health problems. The EP president was taken to a hospital in Strasbourg in September for severe pneumonia. At that time, the politician was unable to perform his duties for more than two months.
David Sassoli was born on May 30th, 1956 in Florence. He was a member of the European Parliament for more than 10 years after switching from journalism to politics. He began his career as a socialist politician as a journalist for Rome’s Il Tempo and then, among other things, hosted RAI’s Italian public service television evening news before he was elected a Member of the European Parliament in 2009 as a member of the Italian Democratic Party (PD). He was President of the European Parliament from 3rd July 2019.
He was a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), the second largest group in the EU Parliament after the European People’s Party (EPP). He is married and has two children. According to the available information, the first round of voting on the election of Sassoli’s successor is expected to take place on Tuesday’s working day of the European Parliament’s meeting in Strasbourg next week.
MTI
Photo: David Sassoli/ Facebook
