That's actually the opposite of the perception of Angela Merkel in Germany. In Germany she is seen as populist, because she changes her mind quite often or waits until the public opinion is clear. Only in the refugee crisis, she was seen as following moral principles having not made any concessions to right wing politics (which earned her a lot of respect and a lot of hate). Make no mistake, generally her team is very accurately tracking public opinion.
Some Bavarian politicians may have other moral principles. But Merkel defended the German constitution which has no limit for asylum seekers and she also followed her christian upbringing.
THE whole CDU is clearly not right anymore, but take Erika Steinbach as an example of the (former) right wing. Or the critics from the CSU. There is also a large group of voters right from CDU/CSU - a voter domain which other politicians from CDU/CSU also claim(ed) for themselves. Politicians from the CDU moved to the AFD ... a prominent example is Alexander Gauland, who was 40 years member of the CDU.
The CDU is extremely fiscally conservative (see Schaeuble's black zero project) and very socially conservative (anti-gay-marriage, anti-drug-legalisation, pro-surveillance compared to the average view of the population).
It is rather right wing in a global context. If you don't think they are right wing, you might want to recalibrate your views of what you think of "centrist".
Merkel perceived as populist in Germany? I've heard a lot about Merkel but this is new. Do you have a poll or anything to show this is really the case and not just your (or your friends/relatives) opinion? Who of Germany's politicians would you call then less of a populist?
It's a slightly different kind of populism. Some called it 'Regierungspopulism'. She orientates her policy towards the public opinion of the majority of the people and aims to maintain her power. She looks very carefully what the public opinion is, when it changes and then works in that direction. Opponents claim she is a populist of the middle. She is not so much driven by a program or an ideology, but she does what is popular at any one moment. As I already mentioned this view of her was then questioned during the refugee crisis where she not did support the willing to help part of the population, but also defended this when there was a more critical opposition rising, including in her own party and the sister party.
There might be a misunderstanding about the word "populist". Looking at Wikipedia:
Populism is a mode of political communication that is centred around contrasts between the "common man" or "the people" and a real or imagined group of "privileged elites", traditionally scapegoating or making a folk devil of the latter.
