Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany has emerged TIME’s 2015 Person of the Year. She is the first woman to be recognized by the magazine since 1986. The first woman to be honoured by the magazine was Wallis Warfield Simpson, followed by Queen Elizabeth II and ex president of the Phillipines, Corazon Aquino.
She according to TIME was picked because “she stood firm against tyranny.” TIME editor, Nancy Gibbs noted that she had provided “steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply. For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply, Angela Merkel is ‘Time’s Person of the Year’.”
On the refugee and Greek economic crises, along with the Paris terror attacks, Gibbs said: “Each time Merkel stepped in. Germany would bail Greece out, on her strict terms. It would welcome refugees as casualties of radical Islamist savagery, not carriers of it.”And it would deploy troops abroad in the fight against ISIS [Islamic State]. You can agree with her or not, but she is not taking the easy road. Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow.”
Time Person of the Year 2015
- Angela Merkel – German chancellor since the 2005 election, leader of the CDU
- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – head of the Islamic State militant group
- Donald Trump – business magnate seeking Republican nomination as US presidential candidate
- Black Lives Matter – activist group campaigning against violence towards black people, notably in the US
- Hassan Rouhani – president of Iran since 2013
- Travis Kalanick – US entrepreneur, founder of the Uber transportation network firm
- Caitlyn Jenner – born Bruce Jenner, became 1976 Olympic decathlon champion, officially changed name and gender in 2015