Merkel Named Time Person of the Year

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named Person of the Year by US Time magazine.

Merkel landed in the list of finalists because over the last year she was in the center of key political and economic events around the world, but also because she came under strong criticism over the migrant crisis in Europe.

"Germany would bail Greece out…. 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 [Islamic state, or Daesh in Arabic]. Germany has spent the past 70 years testing antidotes to its topically 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," Time said in its Person of the Year announcement.

The Chancellor was awarded the title 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," Nancy Gibbs, the editor of the Time magazine told NBC's Today show.

Merkel is the first woman to be named Time's Person of the Year as an individual, as previously women have only topped the ranking as part of a group.