David Sassoli has been a center-left, Democratic Party (PD) member of the European Parliament since 2009. His delegation is the second largest within the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the assembly.

A former vice-president of the European Parliament, 63-year-old Sassoli is known to lawmakers for chairing plenary sessions in Strasbourg.

Speaking ahead of the vote, the Florentine lawmaker said: "Europe will be stronger only with a Parliament which plays a more important role."

A graduate of political science, he worked on newspapers in Rome before becoming a reporter for the TG3 channel in 1992 and then a news presenter for TG1. He became deputy director of the channel in 2007.

He left journalism to become a European parliamentary candidate for the PD, representing the Central Italy district and became Vice President of the European Parliament in 2014. He was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

Re-elected in 2019, he was proposed by the S&D as its candidate for parliamentary president and was elected in the second round with 345 votes.

jm/jil (Reuters, AP)

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