House of Freedoms

House of Freedoms Casa delle Libertà'
Leader	Silvio Berlusconi
Founded	March 2001
Dissolved	2008
Preceded by	Pole for Freedoms
Succeeded by	The People of Freedom
Ideology	Liberal conservatism, Christian democracy, National conservatism
Political position	Centre-right
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

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)
• 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.

Inclusion of neo-fascist movements

In February 2006, two months ahead of the general elections of 2006, UDC secretary Lorenzo Cesa and others protested against the inclusion of neo-fascists such as Adriano Tilgher, Roberto Fiore, Alessandra Mussolini, Gaetano Saya and Pino Rauti in the alliance, branding them impresentabili (unsuitable).

It appeared for some time that these neo-fascist leading figures were going to receive a few almost-guaranteed seats in the Parliament on Forza Italia's ticket, as claimed by political opposers, while Berlusconi definitely ruled out this possibility.

Berlusconi confirmed negotiating with Alessandra Mussolini, but claimed he would request her not to include people like Tilgher and Fiore. Mussolini had previously contended she would not accept any veto. Berlusconi had been photographed with Gaetano Saya's wife, who is also secretary of an extremist neo-fascist party that claims to have such an agreement with the House of Freedoms.

Eventually, Mussolini declared that neither she nor other neo-fascists would be candidates, but her alliance of neo-fascist movements, Social Alternative, would support the House of Freedoms.

Transformation into The People of Freedom party

In December 2007, Berlusconi announced a plan for the creation of a successor to the House of Freedoms, The People of Freedom, hoping to unify much of the Italian centre-right into a single party. With the unexpected fall of the second Prodi government in January 2008, the organisation of the People of Freedom was completed, but only two parties formally joined, Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the National Alliance. For the 2008 general elections, the People of Freedom ran as an unnamed coalition with the Lega Nord and its ally the Movement for Autonomy. Christian democrats from the House of Freedoms refused to join either the People of Freedom or its coalition, and stood independently as the Union of the Centre.

Symbles

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Results in the 2006 Senate election

House of Freedoms (Casa delle Libertà)
Party		Votes		%			Seats		Areas contested
Party name:	Italy:	Abroad:	Italy:	Abroad:	Areas contested:	Italy:	Abroad:	Italy:	Abroad:
Forza Italia	8,201,688	185,438	23.56	21.07	?	78	1
National Alliance	4,234,693		12.17		?	41
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats	2,311,448	57,200	6.64	6.50	?	21	0
Lega Nord - Movement for Autonomy	1,531,939	18,455	4.40	2.10	?	13	0
Tricolour Flame	8,433	0.63	0.96	?	0	0
Social Alternative	215,668		0.62		?	0
Christian Democracy-New PSI	190,724		0.55		?	0
United Pensioners	61,824		0.18		?	0
Italian Republican Party	45,133		0.13		?	0
Environmental List-Ecological Democrats	37,656		0.11		?	0
New Sicily	33,437		0.10		?	0
No Euro Movement	30,515		0.09		?	0
Pact for Sicily	20,833		0.06		?	0
Italian Liberal Party (2004)	15,762		0.05		?	0
Forza Italia-National Alliance	11,505		0.03		?	0
Christian Extended Pact	9,730		0.03		?	0
Liberal Reformers	7,668		0.02		?	0
S.O.S. Italy	4,963		0.01		?	0
For Italy in the World		63.474		7.11	7.11		0
House of Freedoms	175,137		0.50		?	2
Total:		17,359,754	333,000	49.87	37.84	?	155	1