Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Merkel (born 17 July 1954 in Hamburg) was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 22 November 2005 until 8 December 2021, making her the country's longest-serving postwar leader after Helmut Kohl. A quantum chemist by training, she grew up in the German Democratic Republic and entered politics through the Democratic Awakening movement during the 1989–1990 transition, joining the CDU after reunification.

Under Chancellor Kohl she served as Minister for Women and Youth (1991–1994) and Minister for the Environment (1994–1998). She became CDU general secretary in 1998 and party chair in 2000, the first woman to lead the CDU. After the 2005 federal election, she formed a grand coalition with the SPD and was confirmed as Chancellor; she went on to win the 2009, 2013, and 2017 elections.

Her chancellorship was defined by a series of crises. During the eurozone debt crisis (from 2010), she pushed conditional bailouts and austerity for Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, working closely with finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. In 2011, after the Fukushima accident, her government accelerated the Energiewende and decided to phase out nuclear power by 2022. The 2015–2016 refugee influx saw her decision not to close German borders to asylum seekers arriving via the Balkan route, encapsulated in the phrase "Wir schaffen das"; over one million people applied for asylum in Germany in 2015–2016. She also helped negotiate the Minsk II agreement (February 2015) on the Donbas conflict alongside François Hollande, Vladimir Putin, and Petro Poroshenko.

Merkel did not seek re-election as CDU chair in 2018 and stepped down as Chancellor after the September 2021 election, succeeded by Olaf Scholz (SPD). Her legacy is debated, particularly regarding German reliance on Russian gas via Nord Stream and defence spending below NATO's 2% target.