The only declared candidate to take over the presidency of the European Commission from Jacques Santer in January 2000…

Date: 04/02/1999

...has stated that he only rates his chances at 20&percent;. Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi told an Italian newspaper this week that he was “campaigning in the most appropriate way for this sort of institutional post - not a campaign among the masses, but one made of contacts with decision-making élites and meetings with executives”.