The title has recently gone to religious figures, those helping to fight injustice and crippling illnesses, and titans in the business and tech worlds, but 2015 will now go down as the year that TIME Magazine gave a female political leader-Angela Merkel-the title of Person of the Year.

Merkel is the first woman in almost thirty years to grace the cover of the annual issue and receive the top honor, something that was rewarded to her after she handled an economic crisis over the summer, and for how she's handled the refugee crisis and looming terrorist threats in Europe.

"She has stepped up in a way that was uncharacteristic even for her," Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs said of the choice. "She's been a very long-serving leader, the longest-serving in the west. She controls the world's fourth largest economy, but this year she really was tested in how she would respond to some of the most difficult challenges that any leader is facing in the world."

However, some have taken to social media to decry the decision-including current American Presidential candidate Donald Trump, who trashed the magazine for choosing Merkel over him.

However, significantly more people took to Twitter to praise the decision-and Merkel herself, as an inspiration, while others also joked about how someone who could attack Trump deserved the title more.

 

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