Leading candidate for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize

(Baonghean) - Today (October 9), the identity of the winner of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize will be officially announced. Although there were about 300 candidates nominated, the number of people who won this noble title was only from 5 to 20. Among them, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is considered a strong candidate.

Angela Merkel was born on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, West Germany. However, when Merkel was only a few weeks old, her father, Horst Kasner, a Protestant pastor, moved the family to the East. At the age of 19, Merkel studied physics at the University of Leipzig and then worked and researched at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the German Academy of Sciences. After graduating with a doctorate in physics, Merkel worked in the field of quantum chemistry.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel's political career began after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The girl who would later become the most powerful woman in Germany began participating in the democratic movement, joining the newly founded Demokratischer Aufbruch party.

In late 1990, she became a member of the German Parliament representing the CDU – the largest party in West Germany at the time – and served as Minister for Women and Youth in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s cabinet. In 1994, Merkel was appointed Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Reactor Safety, a position that made her a well-known figure and provided a platform for her political career.

In 1999, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who once considered Merkel his daughter, was discovered to have funneled contributions into a secret slush fund that he used to reward friends and comrades. In a leading newspaper, Merkel denounced her former protégé and called for Helmut Kohl to resign.

Angela Merkel then became Chairwoman of the CDU party in 2000 and became Germany's first female Chancellor five years later. After two terms (2005 - 2009) and (2010 - 2013), Angela Merkel is currently the current Chancellor of Germany after being re-elected in the election at the end of 2013.

She was married to physicist Ulrich Merkel in 1977, but the marriage lasted only five years. In 1998, she remarried Joachim Sauer, a chemistry professor in Berlin. She has no children.

Mr. Joachim Sauer (first, left) accompanied his wife to talk with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: Source Petrotimes

Since the event of denouncing Chancellor Helmut Kohl, many people still consider Angela Merkel a "cruel" woman, as said by former Chief of Staff of British Prime Minister Jonathan Powell:

“One of the things that people don't always understand about Merkel is that she's... a really ruthless politician.”

However, the “cruelty” in her political career does not say everything about the German Chancellor. After her announcement that she was “ready to welcome Syrians to Germany” in early September, many famous media outlets commented that “the Iron Lady has opened her heart”, even calling her “the hero of the migrant crisis”. According to Christian Berg Kharpviken, Director of the Institute for International Affairs in Oslo (Norway), Ms. Merkel is emerging as “a spiritual leader in sensitive moments”.

With that open door policy, on October 5, German authorities said that by the end of this year, there will be up to 1.5 million immigrants entering the country, 1.5 times higher than predicted. This puts great pressure on the economic, political and social situation of Germany.

On October 7, about 8,000 people participated in a march organized by the "New Alternative for Germany" party in Erfurt, the capital of Thueringen state, central Germany, to protest the federal government's immigration policy.

According to a survey in September 2015, the number of Germans dissatisfied with Mrs. Merkel's immigration policy increased by 13%. Mrs. Merkel's reputation has also declined quite rapidly in German politics.

According to a poll conducted by the ARD television channel, only 54% of Germans support Ms. Merkel. This is the first time Angela Merkel has ranked only 4th among the most popular politicians in Germany.

Many politicians have warned that the migration crisis is threatening the position of the ruling party and Ms. Merkel personally in the March 2016 election and the federal election in 2017. However, Ms. Merkel has remained steadfast in her opposition to limiting the number of refugees entering the country, despite increasing pressure from her own conservative party, her ruling coalition and the people of the country.

With the Ukraine and euro crises, each step to resolve the crisis has been implemented firmly and carefully by Mrs. Merkel. And this time, the resolute actions in resolving the migrant crisis once again demonstrate the German Chancellor's efforts for peace. A series of world-famous media agencies such as The Times, German newspaper Bild, Bloomberg... all share the same opinion that Mrs. Merkel will be the owner of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

Phuong Thao