It will be quite a responsibility to follow an acknowledged saviour, a man so trusted by international lenders that most of them not-so-secretly hope he will still be prime minister after elections next spring. Nor will the responsibility end there. Any successor may well hold in his hands the future of the euro. So no pressure then.

The country in question is Italy, the eurozone’s largest sovereign debtor, its third-largest economy and the one with the most longstanding, most deep-seated ailments. The man likely to succeed the esteemed Mario Monti is not Silvio Berlusconi, although he has announced yet another “comeback”, claiming he is being asked by many people “to save Italy”, just a year after Mr Monti was appointed prime minister to save it from him. Instead the man to watch, and think about, is a former communist, Pier Luigi Bersani.

Mr Berlusconi will relish running against Mr Bersani more than he would have relished competing against Matteo Renzi, the man Mr Bersani beat in last Sunday’s primaries to become his centre-left Democratic party’s candidate. Mr Renzi, the 37-year-old mayor of Florence, would have personified change, in a centrist, Tony Blair sort of way. He would also have rivalled Mr Berlusconi in his optimism and telegenic skills. Mr Bersani is a duller, older man about whom Mr Berlusconi can readily use his favourite insult: communist.