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Le Monde Person of the Year
In 2009 the French
newspaper
Le
Monde
initiated
a
Person
of the Year
designation for
the man
or woman of that year who had affected
the world
most significantly, either positively or
negatively
.
2009
: President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
,
President of Brazil
. Lula "knew exactly how to be a democratic figure and fight against poverty", and was described as "a referent to
emerging countries
and also to the developing world". Other
candidates
included
US President Barack Obama
,
Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin
and
Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
.
2010
:
Julian Assange
, Australian editor of
WikiLeaks
.
2012
:
Bashar al-Assad
,
President of Syria
.