It now seems to be more or less official: after Romano Prodi won a convincing 75 percent support among centre-left voters in what were effectively the first American-style primaries in Italian history, and Marco Follini resigned as leader of the Union of Christian Democrats (UDC) after a failed attempt to persuade his coalition colleagues that Berlusconi should not be their candidate for premier, the stage now looks set for a Berlusconi-Prodi showdown in next years Italian elections.