Giorgio Napolitano, former Italian president, dies at age 98

Former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano dies at age 98. Napolitano's health condition kept deteriorating over the past few months. On Tuesday morning, he became critical.

Napolitano, who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, was the first ever president to be re-elected for a second term. He was also the longest-serving and longest-lived president in the history of the Italian Republic.

Napolitano represented the migliorista (from migliore, which means “better” in Italian) wing within the Italian Communist Party. The term migliorista was coined as the wing's main aim was to improve the Italian capitalist system by gradually introducing reforms.

He served as the eleventh President of the Italian Republic from May 15, 2006, to January 14, 2015.

The politician had previously served as President of The Chamber of Deputies during the XI Legislature: in 1992 he took over from Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who had become President of Italy.