Berlusconi’s Private Diplomacy

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The trouble with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi goes far beyond his rococo personal life. Indeed, the real problem is his corporate empire, which ranges from media and publishing to insurance and advertising, can conceivably affect key foreign-policy issues, undermining Italy's trustworthiness – and Europe's.

ROME – On the Web site of the Italian Foreign Ministry, Tunisia is praised for its “ideal features” and “political and social stability.” After the popular upheaval that ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from power, the peril of supporting Arab autocrats in exchange for flimsy stability should have once again become apparent to Western powers. In Italy, however, the Tunisian uprising is also a painful reminder of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s tangle of conflicting private and public interests.

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