This paper provides a critical appreciation of Angela Merkel's political strategy as the leader of German Christian Democracy. It considers the highs and lows as well as the stops and goes of Merkel's CDU political supply and government action. The analysis focuses on CDU policies, rhetoric and coalitional strategies in order to assess how the leadership of the party dealt with its pivotal position within the German party system. By employing insights from Sartori's and Farneti's theories of political competition and supplementing them with insights coming from a large body of literature on political leadership in general and Merkel's leadership in particular, the paper asks whether the positioning of Merkel's CDU can be understood in terms of a centre-domination strategy. If so, the paper asks what are the defining traits of its political strategy. Looking at the personal, party-based and institutional resources of Merkel's leadership, this work argues that the political supply of the CDU has relied on a two-pillar approach, hereby named "creditable centrism". On the one hand, the party has anchored itself to the centre of the political system, using its leverage to preempt the policy and coalitional strategies of its competitiors. On the other, it has tried to win the "high moral ground" by winning "moral argument hegemony" with broad appeals to widely held values and beliefs. The rationale of this strategy is only partly explained by the party's competitive incentives and political identity. This explanation needs to be supplemented by a focus on Merkel's agency and on the personal political resources and constraints produced by her own personality, biography and political skills.
