House of Freedoms

The House of Freedoms (Italian: Casa delle Libertà, CdL), was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:

• Forza Italia (FI, Liberal-conservative)
• National Alliance (AN, National-conservative)
• Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC, Christian democratic) (until 2006)
• Lega Nord (LN, Padanian nationalist)
• Movement for Autonomy (MpA, regionalist)
• Christian Democracy for Autonomies (DCA, Christian democratic)
• New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI, social-democratic)
• Italian Republican Party (PRI, liberal)
• Liberal Reformers (RI, libertarian)

The alliance won the 1994 Italian general election under the name Pole of Freedoms, but the resulting government was short-lived, as Lega Nord withdrew their support and went to opposition. Particularly unstable had been the relationship within the federalist Lega Nord movement and the conservative, pro-central government National Alliance. As such, the first Berlusconi government lasted only nine months.

After a five-year centre-left government, Berlusconi managed to keep at bay some of the most uncompromising Lega Nord proposals and won the 2001 general election, this time with a view to create a stable government. It sought to undermine the proportionality rules of the Italian Additional Member System of elections by running many of its constituency candidates under a decoy list called Abolizione Scorporo, a title which explicitly stated its opposition to the counting rules; its tactic largely worked because it had more support than the centre-left United in the Olive Tree alliance.

In 2003 House of Freedoms was routed in local elections by the Olive Tree alliance, and the League threatened to pull out of the House of Freedoms. In 2005, once again, House of Freedoms was severely routed in regional elections, losing six of eight Italian regions. This led to a crisis of the government, particularly after the UDC pulled its four ministers out. A few weeks later, a new government was formed on the 23 April 2005 with the same six parties (FI, AN, LN, UDC, NPSI, PRI) and a minor Cabinet reshuffle, creating the Berlusconi III Cabinet.