The Mogul Versus the Mayor

Silvio Berlusconi—media mogul, billionaire and two-time prime minister—is facing off against Rome's former mayor Walter Veltroni in April elections. The winner will face enormous challenges, including Italy's economic stagnation. In separate interviews, the two candidates sat down with NEWSWEEK reporters Jacopo Barigazzi and Barbie Nadeau, respectively,  to talk about foreign policy, the Mafia and their own personal values. Excerpts:

SILVIO BERLUSCONI
On whether his first visit abroad would be to Israel:
I've received an invitation from President Olmert to go to Israel to take part in the celebrations for the 60th birthday of Israel because they consider me as one of their best European friends. I answered positively because I consider Israel as a state we have to protect, a state that in geographical terms is outside Europe but that for culture, religion, economy is completely Western and European. It's the only real and full democracy in the region. I've always shown my proximity to Israel, and if Olmert will maintain his invitation, I'll be delighted to go to Israel to take part into the celebrations.

On how we would get along with Sarkozy, Brown and Merkel:
I work well with everyone. I have a temperament that is able to open up to what is needed. I know how to be concave when the other is pointed and how to be convex when the other lacks something. Then what counts is not just the fact that I'm the Italian prime minister, the seventh largest economy in the world, but also the fact that I'm an entrepreneur. A man is what he has realized in his life and thereby it's clear that there is a sense of respect and regard toward me. My warmth means that often leaders get close to me in a relationship that is also a friendship

On how he would handle China if he were in power now:
I have deep respect for China, for its civilization and for its economic power. I'm also convinced that trade can bring democracy, but I believe the world's democracies should put some pressure on China to respect human rights and, as far as Tibet is concerned, to try an alternative to violence. I would invite China to talks with the Dalai Lama, who is a spiritual and religious leader and who doesn't ask for independence but only for a certain degree of autonomy in cultural and religious aspects.

On how to stop the Italian Mafia:
The state must go back to legality, something the [left-wing parties] haven't done. When small minorities blocked a road or a railway, the left didn't intervene to guarantee citizens' rights. A state that doesn't do that loses its legitimacy. We have already given evidence of our commitment. Bernardo Provenzano [the last "Godfather"] was arrested after the last elections, but we put him under control a month before the arrest. We jailed many mobsters and we kept the law on hard jail conditions for them. But at the same time we have to complete infrastructures for Sicily with the Strait of Messina bridge and [the] Salerno-Reggio Calabria [motorway] that is the main road in the south. We must have no indulgence for mobsters. Often there's a prosecutors' easygoing approach: investigators arrest mobsters but then they are released. The sentence has to be served and we have to build new jails that have to take away freedom but not dignity or, worse, health. However, it's not something one can do like that. It takes time.

On how he would react if his daughter wanted to have an abortion:
I don't think that one of my daughters, with the education they have received, will ever ask me for something like that. [They have] too much respect for life. It happened to me with one of my daughters, who, by the way, loves her partner, and she had a baby who has given me a deep joy. In Italy we have a law that we'll never touch and that should be fully applied [so that] the state provides all the means to support those who are afraid to have a child.