Angela Merkel (Cinco De Mayo)

Angela Merkel is the current Chancellor of the German Empire, serving in that position since 2006. She is a member of the conservative Center Party and has served as that party's leader since 2004. After narrowly defeating the Schröder government in the 2006 elections, Merkel headed a grand coalition of the Center, Bavaria, Free Democratic and Landbund parties. Praised for her deft managment of Germany's and Europe's finances in the 2009-10 financial crisis, her government was returned by a landslide in 2010 and was returned with a narrow minority in 2014, after which she created Germany's first "grand coalition" by partnering with the Social Democrats.