On the death of Stefano Sotgiu in Sassari, Marco Cappato called him "one of the authorities on participatory democracy."

There is deep mourning in Sassari and beyond for the death of Stefano Sotgiu, who passed away two days ago.

He was president of the special promotion association “Prossima Democrazia” and had gained, as stated in the liner notes of one of his books, “significant experience in participatory-deliberative policy design, in the analysis and evaluation of public policies, in institutional reforms, and in local development.”

In addition to being a musician and songwriter for So You and Goose, Sotgiu also participated in the election campaign that saw Nicola Sanna win mayor of Sassari, running for the Costituente per Sassari civic list in the last municipal elections. He had also been involved for some time with Eumans, a pan-European grassroots movement.

Marco Cappato, President of the Movement, and Lorenzo Mineo, Coordinator, stated: " With the death of Stefano Sotgiu, we lose first of all a friend, always attentive and available, and secondly one of Italy's leading authorities on the topic of participatory democracy. His academic and activist work was passionately aimed at integrating representative democracy with new systems of deliberative democracy, starting with randomly selected citizens' assemblies, in which he was a pioneer in the Italian landscape. We will strive to continue Stefano's work, thanks also to the experience he made available not only to us, but to everyone."