Angela Dorothea Merkel (née Kasner;
born 17 July 1954) is a German politician who is currently Chancellor of Germany.
She is also the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
A former research scientist with a doctorate in physical chemistry, Merkel entered politics in
the wake of the Revolutions of 1989, and briefly served as a
deputy spokesperson for the first democratically elected East German
Government headed by Lothar de Maizière in 1990.
Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel
was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and has been
reelected ever since.
Merkel was appointed as the Minister for
Women and Youth in the federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl in
1991, and became the Minister for
the Environment in 1994.
After her party lost the federal election in 1998, Merkel was
elected Secretary-General of the CDU before
becoming the party's first woman leader two years later in the aftermath of a donations scandal that toppled Wolfgang Schäuble.
Following the 2005 federal election, Merkel was
appointed Germany's first woman Chancellor at the head of a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, its
Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU),
and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained
the largest share of the vote and Merkel was able to form a coalition
government with the support of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
At the 2013 federal election, Merkels CDU won a
landslide victory with 41.5% of the vote and formed a second grand coalition
with the SPD, after the FDP lost all of its representation in the Bundestag.
In 2007, Merkel was President of the European Council and
chaired the G8,
the second woman to do so. Merkel played a central role in the negotiation of
the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration.
One of Merkel's consistent
priorities has been to strengthen transatlantic economic relations.
Merkel played a crucial role in
managing the financial crisis at the European and
international level, and she has been referred to as "the decider."
In domestic policy, health care reform, problems concerning future energy development and more recently her
government's approach to the ongoing migrant crisis have been major issues
during her Chancellorship.
Merkel has been widely described
as the de facto leader of the European
Union throughout her tenure as Chancellor. Merkel has twice
been named the world's second most
powerful person following Vladimir
Putin by Forbes magazine, the highest ranking ever achieved by a
woman.
In December 2015, Merkel was
named as Time magazine's Person of the Year, with the magazine's
cover declaring her to be the "Chancellor of the Free World."
On 26 March 2014, Merkel became
the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the European
Union and she is currently the senior G7 leader. In
May 2016, Merkel was named the most powerful
woman in the world for a record tenth time by Forbes.
On 20 November 2016, Merkel
announced she would seek re-election to a fourth term.
Since late 2016, Merkel has been
widely described as the leader of the free world. en.wikipedia.org/
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