Are We Ready? France’s Digital Sovereignty Decision

In early February 2026, three French ministers must decide whether to move the national health data platform off Microsoft’s cloud in a single step. The platform has been hosted on Microsoft Azure since 2019. A statutory obligation to use sovereign infrastructure has been in force since May 2024, its implementing decree is more than a year overdue, and a government commitment to leave Microsoft, given in 2020, has not been honoured. An expert mission has just concluded that a direct migration is now technically feasible. Meanwhile the Conseil d’État has heard, but not yet ruled on, a challenge to the lawfulness of the present arrangement. Ministers Stéphanie Rist, Anne Le Hénanff and David Amiel each carry a different part of the risk, and none can act alone. The case stops before their decision.