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 In a statement explaining the magazine's choice, managing
editor Nancy Gibbs said despite crises in the region that caused
"reason to wonder whether Europe could continue to exist,"
Merkel, 61, emerged as an "indispensable player."
"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,"
Gibbs wrote.
In response to the news, Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert told a
government news conference: "I am sure the chancellor will
cherish this as an incentive in her job."
Merkel celebrated her 10-year anniversary as chancellor last
month, making her the European Union’s longest-serving leader.
For years she was seen as a cautious, risk-averse leader who
paid close attention to public opinion in formulating policy.
But her leadership in the Ukraine crisis last year, her
clinching of a deal this summer to keep Greece in the euro zone
and her stance in the refugee crisis have changed that view.
In late August, when tens of thousands of migrants fleeing war
in the Middle East streamed into Hungary, threatening a
humanitarian crisis, Merkel agreed to suspend the European
Union’s asylum rules and allow them to continue into Germany.
She declared to skeptical countrymen: “Wir schaffen das,” which
translates as, "We can do this."
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Her “open-door” stance has led to a fall in support for her
conservatives and in her own popularity ratings, which have slid to
54 percent from 75 percent over eight months.
Time also 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 U.S.
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 since Corazon
Aquino in 1986, though women have been honored as part of a group.
Last year, a group of Ebola doctors and survivors won the title.
(Reporting by Megan Cassella in Washington; Additional reporting by
Joseph Nasr and Noah Barkin in Berlin; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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