Italy PM Gentiloni leaves hospital, holds cabinet meeting

Reuters
Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni arrives to hold a traditional end-year press conference in Rome, Italy December 29, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi - RTX2WTPN

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni left hospital and held a cabinet meeting on Saturday following the heart procedure he underwent earlier this week, his office said. Doctors at Rome's Gemelli hospital said the 62-year-old, who took office last month, had made an excellent recovery from the emergency angioplasty they performed to unblock a blood vessel late on Tuesday. Gentiloni, formerly foreign minister, took over as premier when Matteo Renzi resigned after his proposed reform of the constitution was rejected by Italians in a Dec. 4 referendum. An opinion poll in daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday gave Gentiloni's government an approval rating of 33 percent, up from 25 percent a month ago, just after he took office. The same poll said the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement is now Italy's most popular party, with 30.9 percent of voting support, just ahead of Renzi's center-left Democratic Party, on 30.1 percent. (Reporting By Gavin Jones; Editing by Angus MacSwan)