Germany’s strong-woman, who has been in power for 13 years, saw her authority crumble after her party suffered painful losses in a crunch regional election over the weekend.
Ms Merkel announced on Monday she would not seek re-election as leader of the centre-right CDU party and also confirmed she would step down as Chancellor of Germany after 2021.
Since then, political commentators have strongly criticised Ms Merkel and claimed her resignation essentially leaves her sitting as a lame duck.
European Studies Professor Stephen Auer said her exit came “too little too late” and that she has now become a “liability”.
In a bid to reassert her authority, the Germany leader suggested her resignation could actually work in her favour.
Speaking at a news conference alongside Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a summit on Africa in Berlin, Ms Merkel said: “I don’t believe that anything will change about the negotiating position in international negotiations.
“One can even say I have more time to concentrate on my tasks as the head of government.”
Echoing the Chancellor’s words, member of CSU conservative party Manfred Weber, told broadcaster ZDF that Ms Merkel could now “lead without the pressure”.
He said: “There’s also a chance that she can lead without the pressure that all her decisions have to be popular.
“We must have the courage again to look beyond the vagaries of our daily politics and to be a bit visionary because the next years and decades will not be pleasant for our company.”
However, Mr Weber’s seems to be an unpopular opinion as Oliver Rakau, a chief German economist at Oxford Economics, was recently asked in an interview with CNBC how likely he thought it was that the Chancellor would stay until 2021.
In response, he said: “Personally, I do not think it’s as likely as she’s probably hoping.
“But it’s really the only thing she could say in the given circumstances.
“My personal baseline case is that once we know who her successor is as the head of the CDU, her party, it’s likely that person will eventually take over as Chancellor.
“Either in a new form coalition after new elections.”
But the cynic added it doesn’t look likely that there will be elections any time soon.
He continued: “Personally, I think there’s not a big appetite in German politics for new elections at least right now because the two main parties, CUD as well as the Social Democrats, are polling very weakly.
“So I think they will, for now, just try to limp on.”