Angela Merkel is the first woman to win TIME Person of the Year since 1986

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Angela Merkel is the first woman to win TIME Person of the Year since 1986

Time magazine has named German chancellor Angela Merkel its Person of the Year, citing her resolve in leading Europe through this summer’s Greek debt crisis, and her encouragement of other countries to open their borders to migrants and refugees.

Merkel is only the fourth woman to ever be named Person of the Year, after Time opened up the contest to women in 1936. She is the first to be awarded the title since 1986.

Nevertheless, this year, one of the most tumultuous in recent European history, has tested the German leader’s mettle, Time editors said.

“Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow,” Time editor Nancy Gibbs said in a statement issued Wednesday. “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.”


“No one was tested more than her,” Gibbs said on MSNBC on Tuesday morning, in defense of Time’s choice. “She arguably could have been Person of the Year a number of times, but this year is the one I think that pushed her out in front. We call her the chancellor of the free world.”

Other finalists included the founder of Uber, the $62.5bn ride-sharing app that has been met with both resistance and enthusiasm; Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Isis terror cell; Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.

Angela Merkel ist TIME Person des Jahres 2015 https://t.co/XuaORv7Kxk pic.twitter.com/7hhXwIPsfE

— TIME.com (@TIME) December 9, 2015

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