Merkel was reasonably decent at foreign policy. And she did know how to carry herself. Her domestic policy was questionable, though, and her reign was the time of the "black zero", aka the brilliant economic policy of cutting infrastructure spending to save money because surely highway bridges can do without maintenance for a couple decades. Actually, they sacrificed many things on the altar of reducing new debt at all cost, including a buildout of the power and data grids and the East German economy.

In my opinion the biggest contributor to our current problems is the CDU's economic incompetence, which has thoroughly undermined the stability of the country for a twenty year vanity project.

All in all she wasn't entirely shit, which is pretty good for the CDU these days. She was vastly more competent than Merz but that's not a tall hurdle to clear.