The President of the European Parliament, the Italian Social Democrat David Sassoli, died overnight in his homeland, at the age of 65, his spokesman Roberto Cuillo announced.
"The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, passed away at 1.15 a.m. on January 11 at the hospital in Aviano, Italy, where he was hospitalized," wrote Cuillo on Twitter.
"The date and place of his funeral will be announced in the coming hours," he added.
On Monday, the spokesman for the European Parliament president announced the cancellation of Sassoli's official duties as he was admitted to hospital "due to a serious complication due to a malfunction of his immune system".
David Sassoli, who had previously been treated for leukemia, had already been hospitalised in the autumn with pneumonia, which forced him to miss European Parliament sessions for several weeks.
Ironically his term as President (since 2019) was to end this month, in the middle of the five-year parliamentary term.
