Casa delle Libertà (CDL; Italian for House of Freedoms), was a major Italian center-right political alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was composed of several political parties:
The Italian Republican Party and New Italian Socialist Party were once part of the coalition but have since left
The alliance won the 1994 general elections under the name Polo delle Libertà, but the resulting government was short-lived, as the Northern League 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 Alleanza Nazionale. As such, the first Berlusconi government lasted only nine months.
After a five-year left-wing 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 leftist United in the Olive Tree (Uniti nell'Ulivo) 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 April 23, 2005 with the same six parties (FI, AN, LN, UDC, NPSI, PRI) and a minor Cabinet reshuffle (Berlusconi III Cabinet).
