Angela Dorothea Merkel ( Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German politician who has been Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel is the first female chancellor of Germany. Merkel has been widely described as the "de facto" leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world and by many commentators since 2016 as the "leader of the free world".