Michael Kretschmer, premier of the eastern German state of Saxony, repeated a call for talks to end the war in Ukraine on Monday, just two weeks before state elections in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is predicted to make gains. Kretschmer, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is in opposition at the federal level, described the war as “a tragic development in which many were dying every day.” He recently backed a federal decision to cut spending on arms for Ukraine as it fights off the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022….