Merz ally challenges Germany’s far-right firewall ahead of crucial state elections

BERLIN — A key ally of Friedrich Merz has ignited a major political debate by suggesting the chancellor’s centrist conservatives should break a taboo and cooperate with the country’s most popular party: the far-right Alternative for Germany. Michael Kretschmer, premier of the eastern state of Saxony and a member of the chancellor’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, is challenging Merz’s insistence on keeping the country’s firewall against the surging AfD ahead of crucial elections in Sept