(Brussels) “For twelve years, the European Parliament has been his home. Here, he built relations, friendships and bonds that went and will go far beyond mere work relations”. In Brussels, today, Alessandra Vittorini, David Sassoli’s widow, gave a speech at the unveiling of the portrait of her husband, who passed away on January 11th, in the gallery with the portraits of the former presidents of the European Parliament. The ceremony was introduced by a speech of the president of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola; lots of MEPs, the Italian minister Renato Brunetta, the staff of the late president of the EU Parliament, officers, assistants, journalists, were all there. “Here, David spent his difficult years as a president, going through the season of the pandemic and lockdown, confined far from home for months, supervising and ensuring the operation and role of the EU Parliament”, Alessandra Vittorini stated. “And so this house inevitably became a bit of our house too, where we too slowly learnt, from him and with him, to have a different outlook on the world, on politics, on values and on the future. This house, with all the people who inhabit it, is an important place for us”.
Sassoli “will keep telling us, even in his face and in his smile on this wall, about his passion and his faith in the European dream, translated into reality every day”. Then, the president’s widow thanked the entire Parliament, “the women and men who work here”, the staff who shared with Sassoli “these twelve years, which he enthusiastically and unsparingly lived as the greatest adventure of his life”.