At the same time, by moving to the left, Merkel ousted the SPD from the political center – where elections are won and lost in Germany – while still being able to form a workable majority in the new five-party system without risking new coalition constellations and fierce internal conflict. In other words, the secret of Merkel’s election victory was to secure a majority for the center-right in order to pursue, more or less, a center-left policy agenda.