- cross-posted to:
- buyeuropean@feddit.uk
- cross-posted to:
- buyeuropean@feddit.uk
A month or so ago, the Netherlands reportedly blocked a US company from buying the cloud provider that runs Dutch digital identity (there is a post about it in this community here).
The more recent news is that the Chief Privacy Officer of the Dutch government, who was behind this initiative, is about to lose his job.
…
For more than four months, Pieter van Oordt warned internally about the risks of the takeover. When these warnings were ignored, he brought the issue to the media, the Dutch Parliament, and the Cabinet. He showed that Parliament had received incomplete and misleading information and revealed that vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure had been shared with a U.S. company. His actions forced the Ministry of Economic Affairs to block the takeover.
Instead of protection, Van Oordt faced retaliation. He was excluded from meetings, his salary increase was blocked, and his request for protection under the European Whistleblower Directive was rejected, despite an expert report confirming that he should have been protected. He has been suspended, and his dismissal is mentioned in a written notice from the Attorney General on 22 May 2026.
The dismissal has not yet been implemented.
…
Someone started a petition (not me), I post this here as you may want to sign it (and maybe spread the word).
The petition calls on the European Parliament and the European Commission to act:
- Protect Pieter van Oordt from an unlawful dismissal.
- Ensure he can continue his work safely within the public sector.
- Place digital sovereignty of vital infrastructure high on the European agenda.
- Hold the Dutch government and the responsible ministries accountable.
[To read the English version of the linked text, you need to scroll down. It’s below the Dutch version.]
In my opinion this shows that the NL and the EU don’t want to be independent and that they still trust the US. Either Trump is deception or the EU shares Trump’s values.
There are 2 competing factions in the EU and EU countries. The fascist bootlickers who are in on the grift and would happily sell us all down the river for a few table scraps of American surveillance capitalism and those who want a prosperous, thriving and sovereign EU. The traitors need to be dealt with.
It’s complicated. These things are very uneven between countries, and the Netherlands so far do seem like the ones most enjoying their US dependence. This is the most egregious case, but there have been plenty of others recently where the establishment is strongly resisting digital autonomy (and let’s not even talk about Mark Rutte going from “Teflon” to “daddy’s boy”).
Other countries are doing better. It’s interesting that the most “digital” in the continental EU, is also the one most deeply in bed with big tech (whereas German fax machines are already 100% sovereign)
It’s not about trust as much as the NL being a very small and dependent country with a former PM as NATO chairman.
It makes perfect sense even if it’s not particularly desirable.