A Talk With Felipe Calderon

What is your vision for Mexico if you are elected president?

I want Mexico to be a winner in a world that is competing for investment and jobs.

Does electing you mean continuing the reform agenda of President Fox?

I want to keep Mexico on the path of modernization and economic growth. We need to improve the competitiveness of enterprises here in order to improve the performance of the economy and to get higher growth rates.

Would you open up the energy sector and allow private companies to come in?

I will not privatize public sector firms like Pemex [the state-owned oil monopoly] or the state-owned electricity company.

Don't you need to attract foreign investment to create jobs?

In order to create jobs and get growth, it's necessary to [have] . . . national and foreign investment. In the energy sector, I am not thinking of foreign investment.

President Fox came to office with an ambitious reform agenda but did not succeed because he was blocked in congress by the opposition. Many say that the same would happen to you.

I am proposing a coalition government. I would like to be president with a majority in congress. I want to make agreements with other parties in the opposition in order to get a majority, and I am willing to share the program of the government and the cabinet. I want to be able to push an agenda of reforms in the congress.

The tone of the campaign is nasty. Lopez Obrador said in the debate that your brother-in-law got government contracts when you were energy minister.

He claimed that I gave my brother-in-law $250 million in contracts when I was energy minister, and [claimed that my brother-in-law] hadn't paid any taxes. That is absolutely false. I didn't give one single contract to my brother-in-law or any of his companies while I was energy minister.