Five key takeaways from Germany’s historic election

Angela Merkel, one of the world’s highest profile political leaders during her 16 years in office, will stay in the top job until a deal is done. But the haggling could take days, weeks, or even longer — it took months for a government to be formed after Merkel’s 2017 election win.Here are some key takeaways from the historic vote:Worst ever result for Merkel’s partyMerkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had its worst ever showing, posting record losses. Together with its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) it notched up 24.1% of the vote, compared to the SPD’s 25.7%, and lost 49 seats in total; the CSU lost one other seat (the SPD gained 51 seats).In a night marked by a series of bitter blows for the CDU, perhaps the most telling was the loss of Angela Merkel’s own seat.The outgoing chancellor’s constituency — Stralsund, in northeast Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — flipped to SPD candidate Anna Katharina Kassautzki, a 27-year-old who works at the University of Greifswald.Kassautzki told CNN that Merkel leaves behind big shoes to fill. “She has done a lot for the constituency here and I think she was also often a strong chancellor and a role model for us — especially for young girls,” said Kassautzki.Merkel showed that “women can also be in politics, women can also have power,” added Kassautzki. “Just creating visibility like that was very important.”Far-right gains in former East GermanyGermany’s far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, the AfD party, lost 11 seats overall, but came out on top in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony.The AfD, which has pledged to barricade the nation against Europe’s open borders, won its first seats in the Bundestag in 2017, following Angela Merkel’s decision to welcome more than one million migrants into the country. Its nationalist message has struck a chord in parts of the former East Germany, but the party has largely been shut out by Germany’s mainstream political parties.Earlier this year, the AfD was placed under surveillance by the country’s intelligence service, on suspicion of trying to undermine Germany’s democratic constitution.CNN’s Sugam Pokharel, Jennifer Deaton and Helen Regan contributed to this report. Additional reporting by Reuters.