Angela Merkel didn't decide to shift to wind and solar. The Atomaustieg (the decision to abandon nuclear power) was made in 2000 by a coalition of the social democrats and the greens. The movement that lead to this decision goes back to the 70s, the green party actually stems from that.
Merkel slowed down that process at a time where it stopped being that much of an issue and the process was put back on the initial schedule after Fukushima happened.
Merkel is merely going with popular opinion on this.
> Angela Merkel (relevant: probably the only physicist head of state)
That's actually fascinating. She was a physical chemist research scientist, not just undergraduate [1]. I wonder how many other scientist heads of state there have been.
Margaret Thatcher was a research chemist (food scientist) [2], but that's the only other one I know of.
Edit: she was the first British Prime Minister with a Science degree [3].
The UK's new Hinckley point power plant is both more expensive than solar/wind and puts the UK's energy generation in Chinese hands.
There's a reason why Angela Merkel (relevant: probably the only physicist head of state) decided to shift to wind and solar.