The President of the European Parliament, the Italian Social Democrat David Sassoli, died on the night of Monday 10 January to Tuesday 11 January in Italy, at the age of 65, his spokesman said. “David Sassoli died on January 11 at 1:15 am at the CRO [centre de référence d’oncologie] from Aviano, Italy, where he was hospitalized ” since the end of December, announced on Twitter Roberto Cuillo, spokesman for David Sassoli. “The date and place of the funeral will be communicated in the next few hours”, he added.
Monday afternoon, Roberto Cuillo announced the hospitalization of David Sassoli “Due to a serious complication due to a dysfunction of the immune system” and the cancellation of its official activities.
Having suffered from leukemia in the past, David Sassoli had already been hospitalized this fall for pneumonia which had kept him away from Parliament for several weeks. The mandate of this former journalist presenter of television news in Italy, at the head of the assembly since 2019, expired this month, at the half of the quinquennial legislature. A mandate won to everyone’s surprise by the one who had entered politics ten years earlier under the colors of the center left and for which he was fully involved.
Discretion and iron fist
Little inclined to outbursts but holding the debates in the hemicycle with a firm hand, he took over the presidency of the European Parliament at the end of negotiations between major political forces and governments for the presidencies of the three European institutions. The Commission went to the EPP (pro-European right) with Ursula von der Leyen, the Council to the Liberals with Charles Michel and the Parliament to the Socialists with David Sassoli.
His nationality, his party – the second component of the Social Democratic group – and his knowledge of the institution, of which he was one of the vice-presidents during the previous legislature, had made him, at the last minute, the man of the situation.
He saw his mandate of two and a half years weighed down by the health crisis. But the attention paid to his teams, put into teleworking, his sense of organization, with a remote voting system, and his ability to resist French pressure to bring elected officials back to Strasbourg, seat of Parliament, have earned the respect of the institution. A sign of solidarity in the midst of a pandemic, he made the deserted premises of Parliament available, both in Strasbourg and Brussels, for the preparation of meals for families in need and to set up a Covid-19 screening center.
Recovering from leukemia, his health was his Achilles heel. Heavy smoker and good-natured, he was hospitalized in serious condition last September, due to pneumonia which had kept him away from Parliament for several weeks. On December 26, he was hospitalized again “Due to a serious complication due to a dysfunction of the immune system”, according to its spokesperson.