David Maria Sassoli (born 30 May 1956) is an Italian politician and journalist, a member of the Democratic Party.  During the 1970s, he graduated in political science at the University of Florence.

In 2009, Sassoli left his journalistic career to enter politics, becoming a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and running in the 2009 European Parliament election, for the Central Italy district.

On 7 June, he was elected member of the EP with 412,502 personal preferences, becoming the most-voted candidate in his constituency. From 2009 to 2014, he served as PD’s delegation leader in the Parliament.

On 9 October 2012, Sassoli announced his candidacy in the primaries for the centre-left’s candidate as new mayor of Rome in the 2013 municipal election. He ended up in second place with 28% of votes, behind Senator Ignazio Marino, who got 55%, and ahead of former Minister of Communications Paolo Gentiloni. Marino would be later elected mayor, defeating the right-wing incumbent, Gianni Alemanno.

In the European Parliament election of 2014, Sassoli was re-elected to the European Parliament, with 206,170 preferences. The election was characterized by a strong showing of his Democratic Party, which gained 41% of votes. On 1 July 2014 Sassoli was elected Vice-President of the European Parliament with 393 votes, making him the second most voted Socialist candidate. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

As a member of the European Parliament since 2009, he was elected its president on 3 July 2019. In the 2019 European Parliament election in Italy, Sassoli was re-elected to the European Parliament, with 128,533 votes. On 2 July 2019, he was proposed by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) as the new President of the European Parliament. On the following day, Sassoli was elected President by the assembly with 345 votes in favor, succeeding Antonio Tajani. He is the seventh Italian to hold the office.