The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, He died this Tuesday at the age of 65 after more than two weeks of hospitalization in Italy due to complications after a dysfunction of his immune system, has informed his spokesman, Roberto Cuillo.
“The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, died at 1.15 am on January 11,” Cuillo announced on his Twitter account. He specifies that the death occurred at the Aviano Oncology Reference Center (CRO), in Italy, where he was hospitalized.
After contracting pneumonia last September, Sassoli had spent more than two months recovering in his native country and had recently returned to political activity when on December 26 he was admitted to an Italian hospital again for “serious complications after a dysfunction. of your immune system. “
The @EP_President David Sassoli passed away at 1.15 am on 11 January at the CRO in Aviano( PN), Italy, where he was hospitalized. The date and place of the funeral will be communicated in the next few hours.
– RobertoCuillo (@robertocuillo) January 11, 2022
His entry was not made public until this Monday, fifteen days later, when his spokesman announced the cancellation of all his public acts.
After that announcement, the social networks of the leaders of the European institutions and of several of the heads of the main groups of the European Parliament, as well as of the Italian political class, were filled with expressions of support and affection for the president of the European Parliament.
Roberta Metsola, new president
The Italian Social Democrat, who before entering politics had a long journalistic career, was appointed president of the European Parliament in July 2019 and was in the final week of his mandate, since next Tuesday the European Parliament will elect a new president by have reached the halfway point of this legislature (2019-2024).
It is the first time in the history of the European Parliament that an incumbent president has died. According to the internal regulations of the European Parliament, the first vice president must act as president until the election of the successor.
In this case, the first vice-president is the Maltese Roberta Metsola, of the European People’s Party, who was already a favorite to take over in the renewal of the leadership of the European Parliament scheduled for next week in Strasbourg (France).