Re:publica and The Authoritarian Stack – Implications for Germany and Europe, May 18th- 20th, Berlin

“Never Gonna Give You Up”

This year’s Re:publica conference took place in Berlin on 18.-20. May, with over 1,000 speakers on more than 20 stages under the motto “Never Gonna Give You Up”. 

The Authoritarian Stack and FES Future of Work at Re:publica

FES Future of Work participated at the Re:publica conference. On Tuesday 19th, Francesca Bria shared insights from the “Authoritarian Stack” project that has been supported by FES Future of Work – a recently published database and online report dedicated to explaining how US tech firms now operate as state-like powers and export their increasingly authoritarian models over to Europe. Through Palantir´s contracts with state-level police in Bavaria, Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, Anduril´s partnership with Rheinmetall on drone development, these models pose a direct challenge to democratic governance.

From 18–20 May 2026, more than 1,000 speakers came together in Berlin across 20+ stages for this year’s edition of re:publica, held under the motto #NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.

In her talk, Francesca Bria addressed the question of what can be done to stop the EU´s digital dependence from turning into political dependence, via a coordinated response that includes support for public-interest technology, open standards, and democratic governance. This is especially urgent now that the US government is openly supporting illiberal forces in Europe, in tandem with US tech actors.

The Eurostack – a democratic and coordinated response 

The project aims to find solutions to stop the EU´s digital dependence from turning into political dependence. Defending European democratic sovereignty from US American influence calls for a coordinated response like the Eurostack. While building full autonomy is unrealistic, Europe needs to start investing into its technological infrastructure that aligns with European values and interests such as open standards and democratic governance. 

The Link to the world of work 

With the widespread media coverage of the Authoritarian Stack project, FES Future of Work has been active in making the project available in German, French and Spanish and is participating in multiple conference to underline the threat of European dependence on authoritarian US tech infrastructure. 

The call of several influential Silicon Valley thinkers of replacing our democratic system with the rule of CEOs draws the connection of an authoritarian workplace to the authoritarian stack and the work of FES Future of Work. With the increasing digitalization of the workplace, authoritarian ideals are progressively integrated into our infrastructure, blurring the lines between innovation and autocratization. 

Francesca Bria is a technologist, economist and one of Europe's most influential voices on digital sovereignty and public technology. She is Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London, a Board Member of the European Innovation Council, and the initiator of the EuroStack initiative (https://www.euro-stack.info/). She advises governments and international institutions on democratic technology governance and public digital infrastructure, and is for instance member of the International Advisory Council on AI, set up by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Previously, Francesca was president of the Italian National Innovation Fund (CDP Venture Capital) and a board member of RAI, Italy’s public media company. From 2015 to 2019, she served as chief digital technology and innovation officer for the City of Barcelona, where she led the Barcelona Smart City Agenda and spearheaded digital democracy experiments. She co-founded the UN-backed Cities Coallition for Digital Rights and launched DECODE, the EU’s flagship project on data sovereignty in Europe. She has advised the United Nations on digital cities and digital rights and led the New Hanse project on public-interest data governance for the City of Hamburg, pioneering a model where data is treated as a public infrastructure, governed democratically and mobilized for the common good.

The Authoritarian Stack – implications for Germany and Europe | republica

Der Autoritäre Stack @ FES.de