As global leaders lined up to congratulate the United States on the dramatic raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Monday, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was noticeably absent from the airwaves for a good part of the day.

He was tied up in a Milan court defending himself against charges of tax fraud and embezzlement in relation to his Mediaset TV empire — just one of four incredible court cases in which the billionaire businessman is embroiled at the moment.

Well, Berlusconi managed to say Osama’s death was a “great result in the fight against evil” on his way into Milan’s austere Palace of Justice.

But he was more concerned about what he called the “humiliating” persecution he was suffering at the hands of the country’s judiciary.

“There is something which is not right for a democracy to have government leaders humiliated by having to spend hours in court while these important international events are taking place,” he told reporters.

Humiliation is a word the prime minister should use sparingly.  The 74-year-old was photographed having a snooze in the front row of the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican last Sunday. It’s not the first time he has been caught napping.

And two days later he made jokes about his now notorious “bunga bunga” s-x parties while telling a political dinner full of women supporters of Milan’s female mayor Letizia Moratti they were a “missed” opportunity.

“Mamma mia!  I am so far away,” Berlusconi told the rally by telephone.  “What a disaster to lose opportunities like these, you cannot miss out on a dinner with a thousand women.”

Berlusconi’s controversial comments came ahead of regional elections that are expected to show how badly the government has been damaged by the ongoing criminal cases against him as his popularity continues to tumble to record lows.

And there will be plenty more courtroom dramas up ahead.

The prime minister is expected to return to court next Monday in another trial in which he is accused of paying a $600,000 bribe to his former tax lawyer, David Mills in return for giving false evidence in court, and his most sensational case involves charges of s-x with an underage prostitute known to the world as Ruby the Heart Stealer.

There is no doubt that the prime minister’s primary concern is his political survival.

So where does that leave the troubled Italian economy or the government’s divisions over Libya.

Under pressure from the US and other allies, Italian planes recently began flying combat missions over Libya, and Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition partner the Northern League — worried about fresh waves of refugees — threatened to bring the government down if it continued.

On Wednesday the  parliament narrowly approved a motion in favour of the country’s participation in NATO’s military operations there, but called on the government to set a deadline to end hostilities.

Professor James Walston from the American University in Rome describes the government’s foreign policy as a “shambles” and says Berlusconi’s courtroom dramas have exacerbated the problems.

“The last time he appeared in anything like a statesman-like mode was in the days after the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009 — since then it’s been ‘bunga bunga’ all the way,” Walston says, referring to the after-dinner s-x parties that allegedly took place at the prime minister’s private residence outside Milan.

That does not augur well as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NATO Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen who are due to meet Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and officials from 20 other countries in Rome on Thursday to try and resolve the mess in Libya.

As Libya’s largest trading partner and former colonial ruler, you would think  Italy might be steering the key players to some kind of meaningful solution and a possible exit strategy. But if Berlusconi’s latest telephone call is any indication, he is more concerned about his next joke and how many of the women he can invite to his next party — than whether Italy is an unreliable ally.

Or as Professor Walston aptly puts it, “Even tomorrow, when Italy should be at the centre of the ring,  it will still be punching below its weight.”