ANGELA MERKEL

AGE: 53
OCCUPATION: Chancellor of Germany
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 2

PRO: Germany's first female leader in the modern era — and Forbes magazine's most powerful woman in the world — is a principled, post-Bush internationalist: she was the first world leader to decide against attending the Summer Olympics in Beijing, and her pledge to support Israel's tough stance against Iran's putative nuclear program was warmly received.

CON: Things might be tougher for her inside Germany: a massive tax scandal involving the nation's well-compensated corporate class stirred leftist backlash against the center-right Merkel government.