Von der Leyen remembers 'brave' Sassoli

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 9 - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday paid tribute to late European Parliament President David Sassoli at the presentation in Rome of a collection of his speeches entitled The Wisdom and The Audacity, calling him a "kind and courageous man".
    Speaking alongside former Italian premier and ex-EC chief Romano Prodi, she said of Sassoli, who led the EP from July 2019 until his death aged 65 on January 11 last year: "David was a great speaker and also a great politician, who did politics out of passion and not for power.
    "He was a kind and courageous man, wise and daring, and was called by some 'the good president'.
    "When he said goodbye to me he was wont to say in French 'bon courage' "That's why I want to say the same, today, so that all in the EU should have his courage, the courage to fight for our values".
    The Florence-born journalist-turned-politician died a year ago after being hospitalized on December 26, 2021 with serious complications related to an immune-system dysfunction.
    Von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Premier Mario Draghi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were among the officials attending the funeral.
    Sassoli's coffin was carried into the church draped in the flag of the EU.
    "It will be hard, really hard, but over the years you have shown us that nothing is impossible," Sassoli's wife Alessandra Vittorini said in a message to him at the funeral.
    "We always shared you with others - family and work, family and politics, family and passions - other places and commitments with which you constructed your way of being, your values with tenacity.
    "We were your fixed point. But sharing you with others produced this immense thing that we have been experiencing, as we saw with the flowers and cards left in the street yesterday".
    Sassoli also left behind two children.
    A political science graduate from Rome University, Sassoli worked for several newspapers before joining RAI in 1992.
    He worked his way up the State broadcaster and became a news reader for its flagship TG1 news show.
    He entered the political fray in 2009, getting elected as an MEP for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
    He was elected president of the European Parliament on July 3, 2019. (ANSA).