ROME (AP) — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has leukemia, is now stable after three weeks in the hospital being treated for a lung infection, his doctors reported Wednesday.

Berlusconi, who was initially admitted to the intensive care unit of Milan’s San Raffaele clinic, has responded well to treatment in recent days with his lungs recovering in an “optimal and convincing” way, Drs. Alberto Zangrillo and Fabio Ciceri said.

Berlusconi, 86, was hospitalized on April 5 for a lung infection. During his hospitalization, his doctors revealed publicly for the first time that the former three-time premier and media mogul has chronic leukemia.

He was moved out of the ICU and onto a regular ward April 16.

In past years, Berlusconi has also suffered serious heart problems, and in 2020 was admitted to the same hospital, in critical condition, for treatment of COVID-19.

Members of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party have expressed hope in recent days that he might be well enough to participate, either in person or remotely, at a big party rally on May 5-6 in Milan.

Forza Italia, which Berlusconi created in the 1990s, is a junior partner in the right-wing government of Premier Giorgia Meloni.

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