Bavaria blocks deal with Microsoft

Following a dispute in the Bavarian coalition over a new framework agreement with Microsoft, the Finance Ministry has ended negotiations with the American group.

In the dispute within the Bavarian coalition (a center-right coalition between the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Free Voters (Freie Wähler)) regarding the future use of Microsoft 365 office software in state administration, the Ministry for Digital Development, which had pushed for open alternatives, prevailed.

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Digital Development Minister Fabian Mehring (Freie Wähler) had already announced last week that open source alternatives for the software would be tested. Now, the finance ministry has followed suit: Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) confirmed to the Augsburger Allgemeine that negotiations with the American group will be interrupted.

Initially, the Ministry of Finance wanted to gather many individual contracts currently existing in the administration into one large framework agreement, hoping for a unified IT infrastructure and cost savings.

According to media reports, this project would cost almost one billion euros over five years. Digital Development Minister Mehring, on the other hand, has repeatedly spoken out in favor of digital sovereignty and has publicly criticized these plans. The issue has now been “positively resolved” for him, he told the Augsburger Allgemeine.

However, this does not mean an immediate end for Microsoft: The Treasury Department, when asked, said that a “balanced mix” of open source and proprietary software will continue to be used in the state’s data centers.

The opposition SPD and Green parties also welcome the end of the negotiations.

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