Public institutions spend millions of Euros every year for the development of new software that is specifically tailored to their needs.

Unfortunately, most of this software is closed source.

This means that your tax money is being used to pay for software that cannot be modified or even studied. Most public institutions pay to develop programs that they do not or cannot release to the public. When other institutions need to solve similar problems, they have to develop the same software again. And each time the public - including you - has to foot the bill.

Paying a company to provide closed software also leads to vendor lock-in. Vendor lock-in is when an institution contracts a certain provider and later discovers it is very hard to switch to another one.

Companies with a stranglehold on an institution can artificially restrict usage and features of their products. They can forbid you to install their programs on more than a handful of computers, disable saving your work in a certain format, or hike the prices of licenses for no reason.

The biggest problem, however, is the safety of your data.

https://dot.kde.org/2017/09/13/public-money-public-code-join-fsfe-campaign

In spanish → https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20170913-01