Helmut Kohl, the provincial Rhinelander who became Germany’s longest-serving chancellor since Bismarck, used to say he had made an entire career out of being underestimated by his opponents. Much the same goes for Romano Prodi.

Often likened in Italy to an amiable, bumbling priest in a cassock or, even less flatteringly, to a mortadella sausage from his native Bologna, the 66-year-old Mr Prodi this week became the only man to beat Silvio Berlusconi, not just once but twice, in a national election.