NEW YORK: Time magazine Wednesday named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its “Person of the Year 2015,” hailing her leadership for navigating debt and refugee crises that threatened to tear the European Union apart. “For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply, Angela Merkel is Time’s Person of the Year,” wrote editor Nancy Gibbs. Time described her as de facto leader of the European Union who this year steered the union through two existential crises — Greek bankruptcy and the migrant crisis.