Maria Dimopoulou, a public sector worker in Greece, said that Merkel may be woman of the year for Europe and the world in general but for Greece she is disaster of the year and all of the past years.Another dissenter, for different reasons, was Donald Trump.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel was named TIME Person of the Year on Wednesday, with a cover made from an oil portrait by award-winning artist Colin Davidson. The Economist has called Merkel the “Indispensible European” in response to her handling of a series of crises in one of the most turbulent times in European history.
“At a moment when much of the world is once more engaged in a furious debate about the balance between safety and freedom, the chancellor is asking a great deal of the German people, and by their example, the rest of us as well”, Gibbs said.
In 1986, former Philippine President Corazon Aquino was hailed as the Woman of the Year, the last female who topped the list before Angela. “Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow”, TIME Editor Nancy Gibbs wrote in her explanation for choosing Merkel.
She is the first German since Willy Brandt, the West German chancellor named in 1970 for “seeking to bring about a fresh relationship between East and West” during the Cold War.
Times stressed that German citizens are calling Merkel, “Mommy”, as she has managed to raise the living standards in Germany.
Big year… Caitlyn Jenner.
Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s spokesman, said that he was sure the chancellor would take Time’s recognition as an encouragement for her political work in order to create a promising future for Germany and the rest of Europe.
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Time ‘s first runner-up was ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with Black Lives Matter activists in fourth place and Iran President Hassad Rouhani in fifth.
