German chancellor Angela Merkel has been named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year‘.
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As Nancy Gibbs, editor of Time Magazine, explained, Merkel got the accolade for her fearless stance in socio-political issues.
Angela Merkel has received plenty of criticism this year, whether over the Greek debt crisis or over the almost 1 million migrants who have entered Germany this year. “And finally, the carnage in Paris revived the reflex to slam doors, build walls and trust no one”, Gibbs wrote Wednesday.
Time Magazine says the German Chancellor has been chosen because of the way she reacted to various European crises in 2015. Merkel is the first individual woman to hold the Time title in 29 years, though women have been honoured as part of a group. “She’s been a very long-serving leader, the longest-serving in the West. She controls the world’s fourth-largest economy, but this year she really was tested in how she would respond to some of the most hard challenges that any leader is facing in the world”. Merkel is a regular target, and he accuses her of opening up Germany to waves of Syrian refugees that could be terrorists.
In its explanation of choosing Merkel as its “person of the year”, Time noted other European crises such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea. And speaking of election cycles, you will find candidate Donald Trump on our shortlist.
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In 2014 Ebola Fighters (represented by people like Dr. Jerry Brown, Dr. Kent Brantly, Ella Watson-Stryker, Foday Gallah and Salome Karmah) were named the Person of the Year 2014. They picked person who is ruining Germany.’ Quite a mature move. “If he thinks he deserves it, he has the whole next year to let the voters decide that”, said Gibbs on Trump’s potential for being named 2016 Person of the Year. Time said Merkel provided leadership in the West’s response to, what it called, Vladimir Putin’s “creeping theft of Ukraine”.
