Angela Merkel First Woman to Be Named TIME Person of the Year Since Freakin’ 1986

TIME recently announced that Angela Merkel is their Person of the Year. Merkel, who is the chancellor of Germany, is a long-time veteran of EU politics, having seen Germany through the Syrian refugee and Euro crises. She’s proven to be a capable, well-respected leader, as demonstrated by her 10 year tenure. No other competing candidate has come close to contesting her position. In fact, during the last election, she ran virtually unopposed–so much so that she wasn’t even on the ballot, but was elected anyway.

Merkel also has no time for ridiculous political power plays. In her dealings with Putin, Russia’s president, she’s put up with a lot of ridiculous things. For instance, Putin was once late to a meeting. Rather than wait, what does she do? She cancels the damn thing. She just doesn’t play around. According to TheJournal.ie, the entire situation was a “diplomatic debacle.”

According to the New Yorker, Putin once brought a dog to a meeting, undoubtedly to irk Merkel, who dislikes dogs. She tried to divine why Putin did so. She said:

I understand why he has to do this—to prove he’s a man. He’s afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.

Damn. Like I said. Merkel don’t play. Between this response and her complete unwillingness to put up with other peoples’ petty bullshit, it’s clear why she’s been able to maintain her position–and why she’s Person of the Year.

It’s important to also note that the last time a woman was named Person of the Year was in 198-freakin-6. That year, TIME named Philippine president Corazon C. Aquino Person of the Year. It doesn’t get any better going back from there. Jezebel points out that since the award’s inception, “only three other women have been honored: Elizabeth II, Wallis Simpson, and the American Woman, whatever the hell that means.”

It’s great to see Merkel receive the award, whatever it might mean to people now. Hopefully we’ll see a lot more women make the list from here on out.

(via Jezebel)

—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—

Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

twitter