Well I’m glad common sense hasn’t completely left the EU.

“Tax and regulation issues are the preserve of our national parliaments and the European parliament,” Macron said. “We won’t let anyone else decide for us,” he said.

“Should such measures be taken, it would qualify as coercion and prompt a response from the Europeans,” he added, referring to the EU’s anti-coercion instrument, which allows the bloc to punish countries seeking to pressure it to change its policies.

Merz’ quote was decidedly more wishy-washy than that, btw.