The traffic light coalition refrains from criticizing Macron

On Tuesday, the German government stayed completely out of the debate about Emmanuel Macron’s statements on Taiwan. This is mainly because it does not want to add fuel to the fire. Whether in Olaf Scholz‘s chancellery or Annalena Baerbock‘s foreign office, everyone knows that a public contradiction of the French president’s statements would be exactly what Beijing wants: an EU at odds with itself, whose most important members can be played off against each other.