Merkel tipped for 2015 Nobel Peace Prize
Speculation mounted yesterday that Angela Merkel could scoop this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership during Europe's migrant crisis after she was being tipped by one of Germany's leading newspapers and experts in Norway.
Ahead of the Nobel prize season beginning on Monday, Germany's influential Bild newspaper said Merkel, 61, had "a good chance" of winning, in part over her open-door policy on refugees fleeing war and persecution.
"Reasons: her actions in the Ukraine crisis and the refugee policies," the German daily said. A total of 276 nominations have been submitted for this year's peace prize -- two short of the record 278 last year.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute never discloses the list, leaving amateurs and experts to resort to a guessing game ahead of the October 9 announcement.
But Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), is one of a few experts who has the audacity to make a bet. And according to him "Angela Merkel will get the Peace Prize," he told reporters in Oslo on Thursday.
In his annual shortlist of possible winners, she is followed by the Colombian government and FARC rebels for their peace process, and Putin-critical Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta for its perseverance in independent reporting.
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