The Istanbul Syndrome, as it’s being called in the newpapers here, refers to Wednesday night’s defeat of A.C.Milan by Liverpool in the UEFA Champions’ league final. Leading in the first half by 3 goals to nil, a certain complacency set in, and the team of superstars ended up losing on penalty kicks.
While his football team may have unwittingly coined the phrase, with an economy officially in recession, coalition partners who openly talk of the need for new leadership before next year’s elections, and a string of regional electoral defeats*, one can be sure that over the next year Istanbul will be one of the few syndromes that Silvio Berlusconi won’t be accused of suffering from.
On the other hand, his (until now) presumed opponent for next year’s elections, Romano Prodi, may very well be experiencing the political equivalent of that sinking feeling when you lose a 3-0 advantage. The main left wing parties have spent torturous months discussing how to present themselves in next year’s election – attempting to unite centre-left and left wing parties. Policies, and egos, have been discussed, and to many it seemed as if progress was being made – look no further than their regional election victories.
That was until last week when Francesco Rutelli, leader of the Margherita party, declared that his party would not be running under the united banner of the Ulivo, but rather on their own.
Presuming that the election is a close run thing, and the Margharita hold their core vote, it would place them in a good position to be power brokers to either the centre left, or perhaps (whisper it)the centre right. Rutelli has had a number of run ins with his supposed political allies, over Iraq and the upcoming referendum on assisted procreation to name but two of the issues.
Without the Margharitas in a united-left-list for the election it’s unlikely that Prodi’s prospects would be credible. It has all the makings of an own goal…
*The centre right government celebrated their recent regional election victory in Catania in a manner that seemed to suggest they’d forgotten losing 14 out of 16 regions only a couple of weeks previously. Perhaps it’s this poor grasp of mathematics that has had them lead Italy further and further in recession?