Party and parliamentary group

Thirty years of membership

Bilger joined the Christian Democratic Union and the Junge Union in 1996, while still at school. His first offices were in the party's youth organisations, culminating in the state chair of the Junge Union Baden-Württemberg from 2006 to 2011; that period is covered on political beginnings.

Chair of the CDU in Nordwürttemberg

The CDU in Baden-Württemberg is organised in four district associations (Bezirksverbände) between the state party and the county associations. On 1 October 2011 Bilger was elected chair of the Bezirksverband Nordwürttemberg, defeating Dietrich Birk, a former state secretary. The Bundestag describes Nordwürttemberg as the largest district association in the state party, and it lists Bilger as its chair continuously since 2011. Among other things, district associations can submit motions to party conferences.

One such motion attracted national attention. For the CDU's federal party conference in December 2018, the Nordwürttemberg district submitted motions seeking to remove the charitable status of the environmental organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and its right to bring representative lawsuits. The DUH had won court cases leading to diesel driving bans in German cities. The ARD programme Monitor questioned links to the car industry in the region; the district association replied in writing that it had received no donations from the car industry, and the law professor Joachim Wieland criticised the proposal. Bilger defended the motion on air as an invitation to debate the DUH's methods. Details are on criticism and controversies.

The Junge Gruppe

Within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, members aged 35 or under when elected form the Junge Gruppe. Bilger, elected in 2009 at thirty, was its deputy chair from his first term and its chair from 2014 until February 2018, when he joined the government. German Wikipedia gives January 2018 as the end date.

Business and transport networks

German Wikipedia records that Bilger has chaired the transport forum (Verkehrsforum) of the MIT, the CDU/CSU's association for small and medium-sized businesses and the self-employed, since 2013. The CDU/CSU group lists him as a member of its employees' group (Arbeitnehmergruppe), its group of expellees, resettlers and German minorities, and its Parlamentskreis Mittelstand, a caucus on small and medium-sized enterprises. Membership of several such internal groups is common among CDU/CSU MPs. German Wikipedia also records his membership of the “Pizza-Connection”, an informal discussion circle of CDU/CSU and Green politicians.

The federal executive board

Bilger's website dates his election to the CDU's federal executive board (Bundesvorstand), the party's national leadership body below the presidium, to 2022. German Wikipedia gives his membership as 2022–2026. This site has not found a primary source for the end of that membership, so it states only that he was elected in 2022.

Deputy chair of the parliamentary group, 2021–2025

After the 2021 election the CDU/CSU went into opposition. In December 2021 Bilger became one of the deputy chairs of the parliamentary group. Deputy chairs each oversee a set of policy working groups and coordinate the group's line in those areas. His portfolio was environment, nature conservation, nuclear safety and consumer protection, and food and agriculture, as stated on his website and in the CDU/CSU group's press release of May 2025. It did not include transport, climate or energy, which belonged to other deputy chairs.

Documented statements from this period reflect that portfolio. In the Bundestag debate on the new government's planned environment policy on 12 January 2022 he criticised the transfer of climate policy from the environment ministry to the economics ministry as a “dwarfing of a once proud ministry” (translation). In February 2023 he accused the then agriculture minister, Cem Özdemir (Greens), of a lack of ambition. On 19 April 2023 he called the shutdown of the last three nuclear power stations a “victory of ideological stubbornness over practical reason” (translation). These were statements made in opposition, directed at the governing coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP.

Coalition negotiations, spring 2025

After the February 2025 election the CDU/CSU negotiated a coalition with the SPD. Bilger led the CDU/CSU side of the working group on rural areas, agriculture, food and the environment. The trade magazine top agrar called him the Union's chief negotiator for the sector.

Es waren sehr harte Verhandlungen mit den Sozialdemokraten.

“These were very tough negotiations with the Social Democrats.” (translation)

Steffen Bilger, after the coalition talks, 11 April 2025 — top agrar

First Parliamentary Secretary, 2025–2026

On 5 May 2025 the CDU/CSU group elected Bilger as its First Parliamentary Secretary (Erster Parlamentarischer Geschäftsführer) with 93.5% of the vote, succeeding Thorsten Frei, who moved to the Chancellery. Jens Spahn was elected group chair the same day. The First Parliamentary Secretary manages the group's organisation and its business in the chamber, negotiates the plenary agenda with the other groups and is responsible for ensuring that the coalition's majorities hold. The office is covered on First Parliamentary Secretary.

Current role

Since 29 July 2026 Bilger has been Federal Minister for Transport, which ended his role in the group leadership. He remains a Member of the Bundestag and, according to the Bundestag, chair of the CDU Nordwürttemberg. See Federal Minister for Transport.