Italian David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, dies

The President of Parliament European, David Sassoli, died this Tuesday, at 65 years, after more than two weeks admitted to a hospital in Italy for complications arising from a dysfunction in the immune system, informed his spokesman, Roberto Cuillo.

“The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, passed away at 1 am2022 of the day 11 of January at the hospital in Aviano, Italy, where he was hospitalized. The date and location of the funeral will be communicated in the coming hours,” Cuillo posted on Twitter.

After contracting pneumonia in September last year, Sassoli spent more than two months recovering in his native country and had recently returned to political activity, when in Member was readmitted to an Italian hospital for “serious complications following a dysfunction of the immune system”.

The Italian Social Democrat, who had a long career in journalism before entering politics, was appointed President of the European Parliament in July 2019 and was in the last week of his term. Next Tuesday, Parliament will elect a new president for having reached the middle of this legislature (2022-

).

This is the first time in the history of the European Parliament that an incumbent president has died. According to the Parliament’s rules of procedure, the first vice-president must act as president until a successor is elected.

In this case, the first vice-president is the Maltese Roberta Metsola, from the European People’s Party, who was already the favorite to win the post in the renewal of the summit scheduled for next week. comes from Strasbourg, France.