Merkel's hesitancy is understandable, most especially because she's a scientist by trade - chemistry, actually. I believe she has a doctorate in that discipline.
And she's true to her quasi-conservative style by expressing this kind of opposition -- but having grown up in communist East Germany (and having had a pretty cushy lifestyle for someone living in that country, indicative of someone who toed the party line), she's just a wee bit out of her element, methinks.
After all, the State did the thinking for her. She's been pro-democracy only since 1990, a relative newcomer.
I have to say, however, that she's pretty slick. She beat the shit out of Schroeder in the 2005 elections, and that was no easy feat.