An Ode To The Most Powerful Woman In The World: Angela Merkel

Wikipedia tells us that Forbes first came out with a list of the 100 most powerful women in the world in 2004. To quote, “The list is edited by notable Forbes journalists, including Moira Forbes, and is based on visibility and economic impact.” What then would one say about the woman who has topped the list since 2006 and aside from a brief dethroning by American First lady Michelle Obama in 2010, has firmly remained on top.

65 year old Angela Merkel, the first female Chancellor of Germany, also one of the longest serving (she is in her fourth term now) has once again been declared the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes for the year 2019. While she is Mutti, which means “Mommy” because that’s what she is affectionately referred to by her supporters, she is also the decider or power centre in Europe now that Britain is in Brexit shambles. Never the one to shy away from hard choices, Ms Merkel abolished  military conscription, i.e. suspension of compulsory military service, got Germany out of the economic crisis and called out President Trump on his racist and gender offensive comments. She is only the third of acting German chancellors to have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust memorial, and admit profound shame at what is the blackest period in German history. However she will most be remembered as the one with the gumption and the moral ground to allow more than a million Syrian refugees into Germany, in times when everyone in the world is busy keeping their own house in order. Her defense: a very simple, If Europe fails on the question of refugees, then it won’t be the Europe we wished for.

Ms Merkel has now officially stepped down as the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and has refused to seek re-election as chancellor when her current term ends in 2021. The task is cut out for anyone who decides to step into her shoes, for she is one intimidating woman. Very few are aware that Ms Merkel is also a physicist with a PhD in Physical Chemistry which she got from the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof for her thesis on quantum chemistry.

_{Featured image: Carsten Koall/Getty Images/Harvard Gazette}