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Angela Merkel named TIME's Person of the Year 2015

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chadskin

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Europe’s most powerful leader is a refugee from a time and place where her power would have been unimaginable. The German Democratic Republic, where Angela Merkel grew up, was neither democratic nor a republic; it was an Orwellian horror show, where the Iron Curtain found literal expression in the form of the Berlin Wall. The shy daughter of a Lutheran minister, Merkel slipped into politics as a divorced Protestant in a largely Catholic party, a woman in a frat house, an Ossi in the newly unified Germany of the 1990s where easterners were still aliens. No other major Western leader grew up in a stockade, which gave Merkel a rare perspective on the lure of freedom and the risks people will take to taste it.

Her political style was not to have one; no flair, no flourishes, no charisma, just a survivor’s sharp sense of power and a scientist’s devotion to data. Even after Merkel became Germany’s Chancellor in 2005, and then commanded the world’s fourth largest economy, she remained resolutely dull—the better to be underestimated time and again. German pundits called her Merkelvellian when she outsmarted, isolated or just outlasted anyone who might mount a challenge to her. Ever cautious, she proudly practiced what Willy Brandt once called Die Politik der kleinen Schritte (the politics of baby steps), or as we call it in the U.S., leading from behind.

Then came 2015. Not once or twice but three times this year there has been reason to wonder whether Europe could continue to exist, not culturally or geographically but as a historic experiment in ambitious statecraft. Merkel had already emerged as the indispensable player in managing Europe’s serial debt crises; she also led the West’s response to Vladimir Putin’s creeping theft of Ukraine. But now the prospect of Greek bankruptcy threatened the very existence of the euro zone. The migrant and refugee crisis challenged the principle of open borders. And finally, the carnage in Paris revived the reflex to slam doors, build walls and trust no one.

Each time Merkel stepped in. Germany would bail Greece out, on her strict terms. It would welcome refugees as casualties of radical Islamist savagery, not carriers of it. And it would deploy troops abroad in the fight against ISIS. Germany has spent the past 70 years testing antidotes to its toxically nationalist, militarist, genocidal past. Merkel brandished a different set of values—humanity, generosity, tolerance—to demonstrate how Germany’s great strength could be used to save, rather than destroy. It is rare to see a leader in the process of shedding an old and haunting national identity. “If we now have to start apologizing for showing a friendly face in response to emergency situations,” she said, “then that’s not my country.”

And so this time, the woman who trained as a quantum chemist did not run the tests and do the lab work; she made her stand. The blowback has come fast and from all sides. Donald Trump called Merkel “insane” and called the refugees “one of the great Trojan horses.” German protesters called her a traitor, a whore; her allies warned of a popular revolt, and her opponents warned of economic collapse and cultural suicide. The conservative Die Welt published a leaked intelligence report warning about the challenge of assimilating a million migrants: “We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other people as well as a different understanding of society and law.” Her approval ratings dropped more than 20 points, even as she broadcast her faith in her people: “Wir schaffen das,” she has said over and over. “We can do this.”

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. To be welcoming. To be unafraid. To believe that great civilizations build bridges, not walls, and that wars are won both on and off the battlefield. By viewing the refugees as victims to be rescued rather than invaders to be repelled, the woman raised behind the Iron Curtain gambled on freedom. The pastor’s daughter wielded mercy like a weapon. You can agree with her or not, but she is not taking the easy road. Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow. 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.
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http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2015-angela-merkel-choice/

Ranking:
7. Caitlyn Jenner
6. Travis Kalanick (Uber founder)
5. Hassan Rouhani (Iranian president)
4. Black Lives Matter activists
3. Donald Trump
2. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (ISIS leader)
1. Angela Merkel
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Thank god. I was really worried it was going to be Trump, and despite the current chaos, he didn't deserve it if you look at a worldwide perspective.
 
So you become person of the year by stating in a public forum that you cannot secure your borders anyway. (she did that in a German talk show)
 
Messofanego said:
She has dealt with the refugee crisis very well.
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Which was the first time her constant popularity in Germany took a dive. She was very stable ten years, no matter what happened. But the refugee crisis was and is her Bane. The germans are NOT happy with that.
 
His Majesty said:
Isn't TIME person of the year an award for the most influential person of that year, be it by good or bad decisions? I would say Merkel has been very influential in 2015. Sadly not in a good way.
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Solely by that criteria, the dude from ISIS takes it with ease. Influenced whole countries in all continents in the globe.
 
I disagree as simple as that, but at least this "opposite day" nonsense fits in this complete nonsense "opposite" year of 2015 with other crazy decisions like letting Saudi Arabia lead the UN human rights council.
 
I couldn't vote for her even if my life depended on it. But she's not an evil person, I think. Economically either incompetent or naive, letting Schäuble play the austerity game, but in the refugee crisis she made the right decisions for the thousands and thousands at the borders. Kudos for that.
 
I've come to appreciate her more and more as time went on.

Considering some of the real scum that is gaining power in many countries and the pressures on her both nationally and internationally, she is doing very well.
 
Good. Love how salty those right-wing extremists are right now. People are tired of this hate and fear mongering crap. Wir schaffen das.
 
Gemüsepizza;188538242 said:
Good. Love how salty those right-wing extremists are right now. People are tired of this hate and fear mongering crap. Wir schaffen das.
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I'm extremely vocally liberal and progressive and I think what she has done (or didn't) was terrible leadership, and the article about her is hogwash.
 
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