After Denmark, which began using LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office in its public offices, another European country is moving decisively on the digital sovereignty front, and it should come as no surprise that it is France. In fact, it is not only the most proudly chauvinistic EU country, but it was also the first to repeatedly address the issue of emancipation from foreign platforms in the past, discussing, for example, possible community versions of the most used apps even in government contexts – such as WhatsApp – to have greater guarantees that no one can “eavesdrop.”
IS FRANCE SAYING “ADIEU” TO WINDOWS?
Now, with the recent turmoil from across the Atlantic, the Direction Interministérielle Du Numérique has formally announced “the abandonment of Windows in favor of workstations based on the Linux operating system.”
WHY IS PARIS LOCKING DOWN WINDOWS?
The farewell to the Microsoft operating system is more than a symbolic act. Paris wants to avoid the scenario – currently worthy of a science fiction film, but the tantrums of the current White House occupant have pushed the Old Continent to expect the unexpected – in which Donald Trump imposes on software companies based in the US to block the licenses of their programs, paralyzing the Public Administration of the 27.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE
Even the mere danger that such a scenario is conceivable today contributes to concretely weakening European countries in their daily, increasingly muscular dialogue with the United States. Hence the French race towards zero-kilometer solutions, such as the videoconferencing tool “Visio,” the French response to the various American Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.
The National Health Insurance Fund announced a few days ago the migration of its 80,000 agents to the tools of the interministerial digital platform while, last month, the government announced that by the end of this year the transfer of health data to a French solution will be completed.
WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE
But the work, which at the highest levels involves the Ministry of Public Action and Accounts, the Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, the Directorate General for Enterprises, the French National Cybersecurity Agency, and the Directorate General for Public Procurement, has just begun and primarily involves proceeding with a mapping of the “non-EU” software in use. Each ministry must formalize its plan by autumn, specifying which work tools it uses: in short, which databases, which antivirus software is installed, which network equipment, and so on.
IS THE FRENCH LEAP FORWARD WORTHWHILE?
As anticipated, the issue of digital sovereignty has inflamed patriotic fervor in France long before Donald Trump began making us doubt the solidity of agreements made with US companies. In December 2023, for example, France banned its ministers from using instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, which were mandatorily replaced in government contexts by Olvid, a Parisian startup little known to most.
However, there are many aspects to consider: the first, and most trivial, concerns the fact that the lockdown will never be total from foreign eyes and ears as long as we continue to rely on foreign hardware, including, of course, connectivity tools. Based on the same fear, the US banned Chinese Huawei from the American market during Donald Trump’s first term. If a device comes from abroad, it could have pre-installed spyware.
The second concerns the fact that one cannot improvise as actors on a stage never before trodden: unfortunately, Europe does not have Big Tech comparable to the American and Chinese ones, and using programs developed by startups without the same experience and resources as non-EU rivals risks still exposing data and communications to the actions of malicious actors, spies, and hackers.
