Milquetoast journalists and commentators the world over were shocked when Angela Merkel, German chancellor and leader of the country’s dominant conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), reversed her position on the introduction of a “burqa ban” last week.

The same woman who had been declared a last bastion of Western, liberal values by many a professional talking head was now stating to a party conference that she supports a ban on full-face veils in all situations where such a ban is legally and constitutionally permissible. Until now, Merkel had cautiously opposed the ban, despite growing dissent in the CDU. Her change of heart was met with thunderous applause and howls of delight from conference delegates.

Given the almost microscopic number of women who wear a burqa or niqab in Germany (perhaps even less than 0.01 percent of all women in the country), it’s safe to assume that Merkel’s rightward pivot is less about the veil itself than it is a signal to her base and the German public that her party is shifting to the right. Though many in the media seemed surprised by Merkel’s announcement, her declaration was only the latest in a series of calculated retreats over the last few months, through which she hopes to put the CDU on war footing for the 2017 parliamentary elections, where she will seek reelection to a fourth term.