Four years after David Sassoli‘s death, Europe continues to recognise itself in his style, his measure, his profound humanity. He was not only President of the European Parliament, nor simply a convinced pro-European: Sassoli was the embodiment of an idea of Europe as a community of destiny, built on the dignity of the person.

His story has its roots in journalism, a profession that trained him to respect facts and words. From that school Sassoli brought with him a principle that he would never abandon: politics is not above reality, but is its servant. When he was elected President of the European Parliament in 2019, in a Union plagued by sovereignism, crises of confidence and internal rifts, he chose to put Parliament back at the centre as the home of European democracy.

The impact of that empty classroom

During the pandemic, Sassoli uttered words that today resonate like a political testament. In an almost empty chamber, he said that Europe could not afford to suspend democracy, not even in an emergency. It was under his presidency that Parliament continued to meet, to deliberate, to represent, proving that institutions are not a luxury in happy times, but a necessity in difficult times.

His Europeanism was never ideological. Sassoli was well acquainted with the history of the continent: he knew that the Union was born from the rubble of war, from the Ventotene Manifesto, from the awareness that peace is a political construction, not a natural fact. In his speeches he often returned to the historical responsibility of Europe, called to be an area of rights, freedom and solidarity, not a closed fortress or a soulless market.

He paid particular attention to social rights, labour, and the dignity of the most fragile. In this sense, his vision is in the best tradition of post-World War II European constitutionalism, where freedom and social justice are not alternatives, but mutual conditions. Sassoli recalled that Europe cannot survive if it betrays the promise made to its citizens: to leave no one behind.

His sudden and untimely death has left a void that has not been filled

But he has also left a mark. In a time of shouting leaders and politics reduced to permanent confrontation, David Sassoli has shown that one can wield power with meekness, without renouncing firmness. That one can be European without arrogance, institutional without being aloof. Remembering Sassoli today is not an exercise in memory, but a political act. It means asking ourselves which Europe we want: whether that of fears or that of rights, whether that of walls or that of bridges. His lesson remains there, silent but demanding. And it continues to ask us to be, first and foremost, equal to the Europe we have inherited.

Article in collaboration with the ‘Generation Europe’ youth organisation