Casa delle Libertà
The Casa delle Libertà ( German House of Freedoms ) was an alliance of Italian center-right parties between 2000 and 2008. It was headed by Silvio Berlusconi and consisted essentially of Forza Italia , Alleanza Nazionale , Lega Nord and the Christian Democratic UDC . In addition, various smaller parties, such as the Nuovo PSI and the Republican Party , were temporarily members of the alliance.
history
The forerunners of the alliance were the Polo delle Libertà (in northern Italy) and Polo del Buon Governo (in central and southern Italy), which together won the parliamentary elections in 1994 . The Berlusconi I government that was then formed was short-lived, however, as the Northern League left the alliance at the beginning of 1995 and asked for Berlusconi to be voted out. For the new elections in 1996, the Polo per le Libertà appeared nationwide, but without Lega Nord, and lost.
After a five-year term of a center-left government ( L'Ulivo ) succeeded Berlusconi, in the different partner parties of the alliance in a balanced, all partners meet the nascent "hotheads" program coincide. The new elections in 2001 won the Casa delle Libertà and provided the Italian government until 2006 ( Berlusconi II and Berlusconi III cabinets ).
In the regional elections on April 3 and 4, 2005, the alliance suffered a severe setback in eleven of 13 regions against the newly founded left-wing L'Unione under Romano Prodi and finally lost, albeit unexpectedly narrowly, the following parliamentary elections in 2006 .
Due to the sometimes strong differences of opinion within the Casa delle Libertà about its future political strategy, the alliance crumbled in mid-November 2007.
Merger to form Popolo della Libertà
As the starting point for a new center-right coalition, Berlusconi announced on November 18, 2007 the founding of a new party called Il Popolo della Libertà (German: People of Freedom ). Berlusconi's goal was to integrate the parties involved in the Casa delle Libertà into the new alliance and thus to build an antipole to the center-left unity party Partito Democratico , which had been founded a few weeks earlier . However, all three major allies (Alleanza Nazionale, Lega Nord and UDC) initially spoke out against integration into the party newly founded by Berlusconi. The project was temporarily put on hold after the fall of the Prodi government at the end of January 2008.
On February 8, 2008, however, Berlusconi and Fini announced that Forza Italia and Alleanza Nazionale will run for the early parliamentary elections on April 13 and 14 with a common list , while the Lega Nord will compete with its own list and with the Popolo della Libertà only wanted to enter into a list connection . The UDC spoke out completely against participating in the Popolo della Libertà and ran for the 2008 parliamentary election without allies.
PdL and Lega Nord won the election and then made up the Berlusconi IV cabinet . Il Popolo della Libertà grew stronger in March 2009 from an electoral alliance to a unified party in which Forza Italia, Alleanza Nazionale and smaller center-right parties were absorbed.