German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named Time’s Person of the Year, praised by the magazine for her leadership on everything from Syrian refugees to the Greek debt crisis.
“Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow,” Time editor Nancy Gibbs said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Time noted her leadership this year in leading the West’s response to Vladimir Putin’s “creeping theft of Ukraine” and welcoming refugees to Germany despite “the reflex to slam doors, build walls and trust no one.”
Merkel topped a short list of finalists that included US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who came in third, and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was runner-up.
She is the first individual woman to hold the title in 29 years, though women have been honored as part of a group. Last year, a group of Ebola doctors and survivors won the title
“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.”
A pastor’s daughter who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, the 61-year-old Merkel made an unprecedented journey to become chancellor, in power for 10 years, and the world’s most powerful woman.
