On the contrary, she has unflinchingly steered the CDU towards the left, because she learned three things from the CDU’s election defeat in 2002 and its narrow victory in 2005: Germans don’t want to go to war, don’t think much of economic reform, and are mostly to the left of the CDU/CSU. Merkel could attempt this strategy because she knew that her right flank was covered by the FDP, which would attract voters dissatisfied with the CDU’s leftward turn, but then join in a CDU-led coalition.