In Rome, the state funeral of David Sassoli, amid applause and emotion

The highest representatives of international institutions and diplomacy, colleagues from politics and from his life as a journalist, and then many ordinary people.

Thousands, obviously in compliance with the anti Covid rules, gathered this morning in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome for the last farewell to David Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament who died on Monday night .

The car with the corpse Sassoli, left the Capitol where it had been prepared the funeral , arrived in Santa Maria degli Angeli received with cheers and deep emotion for a person "as for the political class", in the words of Cardinal Walter Bassetti, president of the CEI, and whom "many considered one of us", the words of Cardinal Zuppi who officiated the ceremony, on the coffin, the symbolic flag of the European Union.

For the state funeral, as was arranged for the farewell to the president of the European Parliament, first military honors, with the execution of the Silence, and then the funeral rite, a one hour and ten minute Mass officiated, precisely, by the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, and concelebrated by the Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, by the Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, by the Secretary for Relations with States Paul Gallagher, by Monsignor Massimiliano Boiardi and Father Francesco Occhetta.

Among those present in the basilica the Presidents of the Senate Casellati and of the Camera Fico, the President of the Draghi Council, of the Constitutional Court Coraggio, ministers and members of the government, the governor of the Bank of Italy Visco. And again the president of the EU Commission Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the EU Council Charles Michel, the deputy vice president of the European Parliament Metsola and senior officials of the European Parliament, the Italian member of the executive committee of the ECB Panetta, the Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez.

Outside a large screen to allow all citizens to attend the function.

(Unioneonline / vl)