Angela Merkel named TIME magazine's Person of the Year

NEW YORK

Angela Merkel on Wednesday was named TIME magazine’s 2015 Person of the Year.

"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," wrote the magazine’s editor Nancy Gibb.

She also praised the German Chancellor, the fourth woman to win the accolade, for her open-door refugee policy, which sparked backlash from some senior German officials questioning her approach.

"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," Gibbs said. "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."

Other finalists shortlisted for this year's award included Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, Black Lives Matter activists, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, U.S. entrepreneur Travis Kalanick and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner.

Readers voted U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to receive the title, but that poll is non-binding.

In 2014, those on the front lines on the fight against Ebola were bestowed the title, and Pope Francis in 2013.

The winner traditionally appears on the front cover of a special issue of the magazine.

The prestigious title, chosen since 1927, is awarded to “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year".

Other past winners include Mahatma Gandhi (1930), Adolf Hitler (1938), Queen Elizabeth II (1952), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963), U.S. President Barack Obama (2008) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (2012).