Germany will get a Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs

Qbertino writes: This afternoon the political parties CDU and SPD agreed on their final coalition contract to form a Government that includes the founding of a German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Modernisation. German public news Tagesschau.de writes:

Praise for the Ministry of Digital Affairs
The digital association Bitkom welcomed the planned establishment of a Ministry for Digitalization and State Modernization. It called it a “milestone for Germany” and a long-overdue signal for progress. If properly structured, the ministry could bring together digital policy issues at the federal level under one roof and thus become a true driver of digitalization. “More than ever, we must now become competitive, innovative, and digitally capable of action.

As a German IT expert I can say: Well, that's about effing time. Halle-flippin-luja. I'm cautiously optimistic that the upcoming Friedrich Merz government won't botch this completely. Let's hope they do first things first: National OIDC-type Ident/Auth/Auth, Signature and Encryption with optional anonymity and strict enforcement of open human-readable formats for official documents and notices. We'll see.