It's funny then that the left-wing parties disagree with so much of Merkels policy then, especially in the core areas of left-wing politics. Reforming Hartz4 and the pension system, that'd be a left-wing dream. A left-wing dream certainly isn't a government with Horst Seehofer responsible for the interior and "Heimat", or Jens Spahn for Health.

Not all they do is clear right-wing (how could it be in a coalition with a center-left party?), but little is clear left-wing. Not the worst from a left-wing perspective, as you can tell by the conflicts in her party and the AfD, and the fact that the SPD got in again after much hand-wringing, but that's about it.

This ongoing coalition is of course a problem, since both parties are forced into compromises, which makes it hard to sell themselves as big successes to their voters.

Partially you seem to apply US standards for whats left- and right-wing policies to a country with a fairly different political landscape, e.g. with the examples you first cited as being clearly left-wing dreams, many of which are fairly mainstream positions in Germany.