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. "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."
Angela Merkel is TIME’s 2015 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/Be7EjFlRS2 pic.twitter.com/3YLPZJYSlq
— TIME.com (@TIME) December 9, 2015
It has been 29 years since a woman was TIME's Person of the Year. Back in 1986, Corazon Aquino, the first woman president of the Philippines, was dubbed “Woman of the Year (Man of the Year.)” TIME changed the title to Person of the Year in 1999.
The seven other finalists for 2015 included Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter protest movement, the head of ISIS and Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick.