Yahoo – AFP,
December 28, 2015
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| AFP journalists have chosen Angela Merkel as the most influential figure of 2015 after the German chancellor stamped her mark on the European migrant and Greek financial crises (AFP Photo/John MacDougall) |
Paris (AFP)
- AFP journalists have chosen Angela Merkel as the most influential figure of
2015 after the German chancellor stamped her mark on the European migrant and
Greek financial crises.
The vote by
editorial staff from all services and languages across the world put Russian
President Vladimir Putin as number two on a list of people who most influenced
world affairs over the year.
Putin had
the top spot in the agency's 2014 vote.
Here are
this year's top 10:
ANGELA
MERKEL - The chancellor's open-door policy brought around a million refugees to
Germany over 2015. The flood of migrants, a consequence of the devastating war
in Syria, was the biggest in Europe since World War II and put the continent
under huge strain, exposing its fault lines.
For hopeful
Syrian and Afghan refugees she was "Mama Merkel"; some of her
European counterparts and party colleagues were less welcoming, even openly
critical.
Merkel's
authority as the de facto leader of Europe was also on display during Greece's
protracted financial saga, when she stood firm as the country's far-left
government pushed back against austerity measures intended to save its economy
and place in Europe.
Merkel was
also voted Time magazine's Person of the Year.
VLADIMIR
PUTIN - He was shunned by world leaders and put under sanctions for Russia's
role in the 2014 standoff in Ukraine. But Putin was still able to impose
himself on this year's most pressing problems, returning to the diplomatic
centre stage over the Syrian conflict.
Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad owes his political survival to Putin's military
backing, and the two allies have made themselves indispensable to efforts to
end the four-year war that only started taking shape late this year.
 |
Russian
President Vladimir Putin was able to impose himself on 2015's most
pressing
problems, returning to the diplomatic centre stage over the Syrian
conflict
(AFP Photo/Maxim Shipenkov)
|
POPE
FRANCIS - From the US-Cuba reconciliation to progress towards peace in
Colombia, the Argentinian pope continues to influence the weighty issues of his
home region. He also remained active more globally, for example with a
courageous visit to volatile Central Africa, while pursuing his drive to
modernise and open up the Catholic Church.
PARISIANS -
They were 1.5 million to take to the streets of the French capital after the
January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a kosher
supermarket that left 17 people dead.
Paris was
hit again before the year was out when jihadists linked to the Islamic State
group mowed down 130 people in cafes and the Bataclan concert hall, venues
emblematic of the city's way of life and now of resistance to terrorism.
ABU BAKR
AL-BAGHDADI - While Baghdadi remained largely invisible over the year, the
Islamic State group that he heads extended its murderous campaign beyond the
territory it controls in Iraq and Syria, growing its presence in Libya and
claiming the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt.
AUNG SAN
SUU KYI - After a near 30-year struggle with a stubborn junta for democracy,
"The Lady" stands on the threshold of power in Myanmar following her
party's landslide win in November's legislative elections.
DONALD
TRUMP - Just a few weeks out from the primaries, the conservative and
provocative businessman seems unshakeable from the top of the Republican polls
and could well find himself opposite Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US
presidential elections.
ALEXIS
TSIPRAS and YANIS VAROUFAKIS - The Greek prime minister and his former finance
minister symbolised resistance to the austerity policies prescribed for Greece
as a cure for years of disastrous financial mismanagement. Even if Tsipras had
to back down from key electoral pledges, his Syriza party became a model for
Europe's far left, today represented by Spain's Podemos.
SEPP
BLATTER - This year world football has been hitting headlines for all the wrong
reasons, with the FIFA corruption scandal and its powerful president
overshadowing any sporting fixture or achievement by far.
JOHN KERRY
and MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF - Sometimes diplomacy, patience and perseverance can
find a way out of the most complex of issues. This was the feat of the US and
Iranian foreign ministers who, in marathon meetings in Geneva and Vienna,
reached a historic compromise to defuse stubborn tensions over Iran's nuclear
programme.
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