Anke Domscheit-Berg: "The most important complex is digital sovereignty"

Anke Domscheit-Berg is the highest-profile digital politician in Germany. The Left Party MP's questions to the federal government have often made headlines, for example on the proportion of open source software in federal development contracts or the lobbying contacts between the federal government and SAP and Microsoft. In an interview with c't, she takes stock of her eight years in the Bundestag and formulates demands for the next federal government.

c't: Ms. Domscheit-Berg, you have shaped digital policy debates in the Bundestag over the past eight years, and now you are leaving parliament. Why have you decided not to run again?

Anke Domscheit-Berg: Because I personally believe that no one should serve more than two terms. I think that spoils people and is therefore also bad for parliament.

In what way does the mandate spoil people?

I mean no offense to those who stay longer. But people in the Bundestag are so overworked and so caught up in this ecosystem that they run the risk of losing touch with reality. I believe you need to experience reality first-hand in order to be able to make better policies. And it's also not good if you get used to the privileges you have in the Bundestag.

When you look back on your work as a digital politician, what are you particularly proud of?

As an opposition politician, I can't say that I got law xy passed. But I believe that I have nevertheless left my mark. I was able to shape what left-wing digital policy is. And I have received a great deal of cross-party recognition for my professional work. For example, people from the federal government have repeatedly told me that they have great respect for my inquiries because they were of a particularly high professional quality.

However, it was also important for me to work as the long arm of civil society in the Bundestag, so to speak. I had close contacts with organizations such as CCC, GFF, F5 or Wikimedia and invited my experts to hearings from this community.

But I also achieved concrete changes, such as funding for repair cafés or improved reporting on the sustainability of federal IT. My years of persistent questioning have certainly contributed to this.

"We need exit strategies wherever dependencies are too great"

In your opinion, which two or three digital policy decisions are the most important for the future government?

The most important complex is digital sovereignty, and it has become even more important due to the developments in the USA in recent weeks. For example, a sovereign cloud is not a Microsoft cloud located at SAP. If there are no updates, firewalls and the like won't help us. We finally need truly sovereign solutions.

In the last coalition agreement, there was already a promise to commission software as open source as a rule. However, my inquiries have shown that this only happened in 0.5 percent of cases. This means that the new government must ensure that open source software is also commissioned and used as a genuine alternative. We also need exit strategies wherever dependencies are too great.

The second topic that needs a particularly high priority is cyber security. This includes everything we understand by hybrid warfare, i.e. the threat to our democracy from strategic disinformation. We must learn to protect ourselves better and become more resilient as a population. But this area also includes finally getting the KRITIS umbrella law through and implementing the NIS2 directive, but with the involvement of the municipalities and with a CISO federal government that also has something to report. The BSI must also become independent and better equipped and the criminalization of IT security research must stop.

"Olaf Scholz simply had zero interest in digital issues and zero knowledge of them"

What do you think a new digital ministry would bring, at least according to the CDU/CSU's election manifesto?

I'm not at all sure whether it will actually happen. There are also rumors about alternative approaches, such as moving the Federal CIO from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Finance, where a digital budget would also be located. One argument against setting up a new digital ministry is that the first one and a half years would be lost, perhaps even two. On the other hand, there are already many detailed concepts for the structure, for example from Agora Digitalisierung, so it could also be done more quickly. Ultimately, the usefulness of a digital ministry depends on what tasks it should have, what powers and resources it is given and how much digital expertise the person sitting at the head of this ministry has.

But this also applies to the Federal Chancellor. My experience from the last few years is that digitalization has failed for many reasons, but one very important reason has always been the lack of digital expertise at the very top level. It was very telling that Olaf Scholz threw all digital issues out of the chancellor's office like hot potatoes in the very first week. He simply had zero interest in it and zero knowledge of it. And my concern is that this will be repeated one-to-one with Friedrich Merz.

You announced in the Bundestag that you would remain involved in the Left Party and digital policy. What exactly are your plans now?

First of all, I'm going to get a good night's sleep and relax a bit. I want to have time for all the things I've had very little time for over the past eight years. Friends, family, garden, cats, all the trimmings. But I also want to pick up where I left off eight years ago. I was working as a freelance publicist, writing texts and giving talks, mainly on digital policy issues. I could also imagine doing some consulting work.

(cwo)