Feeling the Heat.(Silvio Berlusconi)

Imagine this. The president of the European Union is hosting a historic summit. Exhorting fellow ministers to admit Russia to the European Union, he brandishes an emphatic fist in the air--where the lights of the world's assembled TV networks catch his electronic-surveillance bracelet. As if that were not embarrassing enough, the president's military escorts have been replaced by prison guards who stay by his side at all times, making it slightly awkward to schmooze with other leaders. The debates are held at a record clip, too. After all, the president has to be back in his cell by sundown--rules of the prison furlough.

It won't really be as bad as all that for Silvio Berlusconi. But Italy's bad-boy prime minister is in another fix--and this time so is Europe. The telegenic billionaire statesman-cum-potential felon is losing ground in his three-year-old bribery trial. A verdict looks likely just as he takes the helm of the European Union in July. If convicted--and he may well be--Berlusconi would be barred by law from leaving the country while awaiting sentence or lodging an appeal. Think of that: the EU president, unable to travel in Europe. And even if he gets around that technicality, imagine the reception; he's already been called "unfit to lead Europe" by The Economist magazine. For the ever- slippery Mr. B., the only way out may be political immunity. His majority party is pushing two such bills through Parliament even now. "Not in the name of my alleged personal interests," says the P.M., "but in those of the nation." No doubt.

By now, Italians are accustomed to the corruption capers of their politicians. Never mind that Berlusconi has faced more accusations of bribery, fraud and other unseemly activity than any sitting prime minister in Italy's history. His approval ratings remain high; if elections were held now, polls say he'd win hands down. Nor is he the only world leader in hot water. French President Jacques Chirac, for one, also counts on political immunity to keep himself and his cohorts --out of court. Still, Berlusconi is for now the only sitting European leader in the dock--and quite a circus it has been.

The charges are very serious. Berlusconi faces accusations of bribing judges to block the sale of a state food company to a business foe in the 1980s. Legal experts rate the chance of conviction as "very, very high." Magistrates showed their teeth earlier this month by convicting Berlusconi's former attorney and longtime friend and business partner, Cesare Previti, and sentencing him to 11 years for crimes similar to those with which Berlusconi is charged. Newspapers called Previti's conviction "the antipasto" to Berlusconi's.

He may yet slip out of the mess. After all, Berlusconi has 80 lawyers and the majority of the government working for him. Their latest move: calling an additional 1,800 people--most of them high-level politicos-- as defense witnesses, though the judges may deny most of those so late in the trial. Meanwhile, members of his ruling coalition are pushing possible rescue plans in Parliament. Recent legislation does everything from shortening the statute of limitations to lessening the gravity of crimes like false accounting (in the process making Italy one of the best places in the world to be a white-collar criminal). Thanks to their efforts, at least two unrelated charges against Berlusconi have been dropped. And lawmakers just introduced a pair of new immunity proposals. One blocks trials against any of the top five leaders in the country; the other grants immunity to all members of Parliament. Opposition leaders vow to hold up the debate and stop the immunity bills on ...