The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including Forza Italia and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election.

On 18 November 2007, Berlusconi claimed that his supporters had collected over 7 million signatures on an appeal demanding the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, to call a fresh general election.

Shortly afterwards, from the running board of a car in a crowded Piazza San Babila in Milan,[18] he announced that FI would soon merge or transform into a new "party of the Italian people".

[24] On 8 February, Berlusconi and Fini agreed to form a joint list under the banner of The People of Freedom (PdL), in alliance with LN.

of Daniele Capezzone, Italians in the World of Sergio De Gregorio, Social Action of Alessandra Mussolini, the Libertarian Right (a splinter group from The Right) of Luciano Buonocore and the Reformist Socialists of Donato Robilotta.

Berlusconi was elected president, while Sandro Bondi, Ignazio La Russa and Denis Verdini were appointed national coordinators, Maurizio Lupi organizational secretary and Daniele Capezzone spokesperson.

[26] In the big round of regional elections of 2010, the PdL retained Lombardy with Roberto Formigoni (in coalition with LN), gained Lazio with Renata Polverini (a former leader of the General Labour Union), Campania with Stefano Caldoro (a leading Socialist) and Calabria with Giuseppe Scopelliti (a former AN member).

The PdL was also instrumental in the centre-right victories in Veneto and Piedmont, where two presidents of LN, Luca Zaia and Roberto Cota respectively, were elected.

Although some Finiani, such as Italo Bocchino, Carmelo Briguglio and Fabio Granata, shared Fini's views on moral issues and immigration, many others, including Andrea Ronchi and Adolfo Urso, were traditionalist.

In fact most Finiani were Southern conservatives who opposed Berlusconi's firm alliance with LN, federal reform and Giulio Tremonti's economic policy.

[33][34] Fini made inroads among the liberal and centrist ranks of the former FI,[35] but he lost the support of most leading members of the former AN, notably including Ignazio La Russa, Maurizio Gasparri and Altero Matteoli, who became close allies of Berlusconi.

[43] On 29 July 2010, the executive committee released a document (voted by 33 members out of 37) in which Fini was described as "incompatible" with the political line of the PdL and unable to perform his job of President of the Chamber of Deputies in a neutral way.

On 7 November, during a convention in Bastia Umbra, Fini asked Berlusconi to step down as Prime Minister and proposed a new government including the Union of the Centre (UdC).

[62] On 2 November, Destro and Gava, along with Roberto Antonione, Giorgio Stracquadanio, Isabella Bertolini and Giancarlo Pittelli (who had left the party along with Santo Versace in September), promoted an open letter in which they asked Berlusconi to step down.

[86] On 25 November eight candidates filed the required number of signature in support of their bid: Angelino Alfano, Giorgia Meloni, Giancarlo Galan (who renounced right after), Guido Crosetto, Daniela Santanchè, Michaela Biancofiore, Giampiero Samorì and Alessandro Cattaneo.

[89] As soon as 12 December Berlusconi backtracked and stated that if Monti were to run for Prime Minister as the leader of a united centre-right (including also Luca Cordero di Montezemolo's Future Italy) he would stand aside and support him.

[96] On 17 December Ignazio La Russa announced he was leaving the PdL to form "National Centre-Right", aiming at representing not just anti-Monti right-wingers, but also the liberals and Christian democrats around Crosetto.

[97] On 21 December La Russa's National Centre-Right and the groups around Crosetto and Meloni joined forces and formed Brothers of Italy.

[110] The ministers obeyed, but made clear that they dissented from the decision; Quagliariello and Lorenzin announced that they might not join the new FI, while Alfano described himself "differently berlusconiano".

),[112][113] sided with the ministers, while the hawks led by Daniela Santanchè, most of whom liberals (Antonio Martino, Denis Verdini, Giancarlo Galan, Renato Brunetta, Sandro Bondi, Niccolò Ghedini, Daniele Capezzone, etc.

Faced by this ultimatum, Berlusconi made a U-turn few minutes ahead of the vote and subsequently tried a reconciliation process within the party to avoid the split.

[116] Raffaele Fitto, Christian democrat and leader of the self-proclaimed "loyalists" (the party's mainstream, including Mariastella Gelmini, Mara Carfagna, etc.

), supported by Galan and Bondi, announced his disagreement with Alfano's political line and proposed a congress to decide the party's positionment,[117] while the floor leaders, Maurizio Gasparri, Altero Matteoli, Paolo Romani and others came out as "mediators".

FI, launched in 1994 by Silvio Berlusconi, was joined mainly by former Christian Democrats, Socialists, and Liberals who had seen their parties disappear amid the Tangentopoli scandals.

The party's main cultural strains were Christian democracy and liberal conservatism,[6] but it is not to be underestimated the weight of those coming from the right-wing AN and the relevant role played by former Socialists, who were disproportionately represented in Berlusconi IV Cabinet.

Four leading ministers (Giulio Tremonti, Franco Frattini, Maurizio Sacconi, and Renato Brunetta) hailed from the old PSI, while another Socialist, Fabrizio Cicchitto, was the party leader in the Chamber of Deputies.

[134] Traditional values and the social market economy grew of importance in the rhetoric of the new party, partly replacing the small government and economic libertarian ideals expressed by FI.

They contributed one million Euros to the Liberal Democrats whose deputies were elected on the PdL list in 2008, and left the government camp after some months but returned in April 2011.

The regions governed by a PdL governor in 2013 were just four (Campania, Calabria, Abruzzo, and Sardinia), far less than the Democratic Party and its allies, which controlled twelve.

In the 2013 Italian general election, in which the PdL suffered a dramatic loss of votes, the party ran stronger in Campania (29.0%), Apulia (28.9%), and Sicily (26.5%).