默克尔：自由和民主的卫士
对于德国总理安格拉•默克尔(Angela Merkel)而言，2016年又是惊心动魄的一年，她被推上了全球事务的中央舞台，同时呼声四起，要求她接过即将离任的美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)的担子，成为西方世界的领袖。
While Ms Merkel dismissed such demands as “absurd”, she has recognised that the populist Donald Trump’s election to the White House has added to her huge responsibilities. Any thought that, after three terms in power, she might retire at 62 has been swept away: she has decided to stand again in next year’s parliamentary elections.
默克尔并不响应这种呼声，斥之为“荒唐”，但她已经意识到，民粹主义者唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)当选美国总统后，她肩上的担子更重了。人们原本以为，在当了三任总理后，她可能在62岁退休。如今这种想法已经烟消云散，因为她已决定明年再次参加议会选举。
And she has made clear that she has far more than Germany on her mind — pledging to carry on the fight for liberal democracy, free trade and open societies even as rightwing populists are heading in a different direction. This promise alone was enough to make Ms Merkel the FT’s Person of the Year for 2015, a leading contender for this year and will almost certainly put her in the running for 2017.
而且她明确表示，她心中所着想的绝不止是德国——她承诺继续为自由民主、自由贸易和开放社会而战，即便右翼民粹主义者正冲着不同的方向去了。这一承诺就足以让默克尔成为了英国《金融时报》2015年年度人物、2016年这一称号的有力争夺者，也几乎肯定会让她在2017年入围。
For much of 2016, she has tried to win back support from voters sceptical about her mid-2015 decision to keep open the country’s borders for refugees. While insisting that she was right at the time, she has since tightened asylum rules and supported a controversial EU-Turkey migration deal.
2015年中期她决定向难民开放德国边境招致了部分选民的怀疑，在2016年的大部分时间里她一直试图重新赢回这部分选民的支持。尽管她坚持认为自己当初的决定是正确的，但她后来已经收紧了难民政策并且支持欧盟与土耳其达成的一项有争议的移民协议。
The country remains divided, with the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party capitalising on anti-Merkel sentiment. But, battered and bruised though she is, she remains favourite to win next year’s poll, even with reduced support.
国家仍然存在裂痕，反移民的德国新选择党(Alternative for Germany)大加利用国内反默克尔的情绪。不过，尽管饱受抨击、创伤累累，默克尔仍然大有希望赢得明年的选举，即便支持率可能会下滑。
The writer is the FT’s Berlin correspondent
本文作者为英国《金融时报》驻柏林记者
