Digital David versus Tech Giant Goliath: Interview with Michiel Leenaars on Radio 1

To claim that you don’t have the competence to arrange that yourself is a sign of administrative incompetence,” said Michiel Leenaars, NLnet's Director of Strategy in an interview on Radio 1. He responded to a recent report of the thinktank Clingendael Institute which warns that the Dutch government has squandered cloud sovereignty by outsourcing storing vital and sensitive information to American providers. And the same goes for the data of the BKR foundation where every Dutch person with a debt is recorded. Email is older than any of the American companies that the Dutch governments are currently outsourcing to, said Leenaars. Members of Parliament already urged the administration to make open source primary in its IT strategy more than 20 years ago. BKR information, each and every debt of people in the Netherlands, the kompromat of Dutch society. And you make yourself vulnerable like that only because it may be ten cents cheaper than hosting it in the Netherlands,” said Leenaars. It’s more like the Lilliputtians against Gulliver, you can win because you are with so many more. Transitioning from NGI to Open Internet Stack — open calls temporarily paused 2026-06-12