Steffen BilgerFederal Minister for Transport

Parliamentary work · Speeches

Speeches

Verified speeches by Steffen Bilger in the German Bundestag and at the Federal Ministry for Transport, from transport debates as a backbench MP to his first budget speech as minister. Every entry gives the official debate title or, where none exists, a neutral description, and links to the record.

Entries
15
Span
2016–2026
Record
bundestag.de, bmv.de
Television still of Steffen Bilger speaking at the Bundestag lectern in a dark suit, with the caption 'Steffen Bilger, CDU/CSU' and the seats of the presiding officers behind him
Steffen Bilger at the lectern of the German Bundestag, in a still from the parliament's television coverage.

Featured · 8 September 2026

First reading of the 2027 budget, Einzelplan 12

Institution
German Bundestag, plenary
Role
Federal Minister for Transport, opening speaker
Occasion
Same day as his oath of office
Text
Full speech, bundesregierung.de

Bilger's first speech as minister opened the Bundestag's debate on the transport budget, the largest investment section of the federal budget. He structured it around four verbs: invest, simplify, improve and modernise. He put transport investment up to 2030 at about €170 billion, including money from the special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality, announced that the Autobahn financing bill would go to cabinet in the autumn, and said rail construction would rise by €300 million in 2027 and €1.8 billion in total by 2030. He also told the chamber about a conversation with a train conductor who had been insulted and attacked at work.

  1. Deutschland kann Infrastruktur, und zwar eine Infrastruktur, die funktioniert, wirkt und bezahlbar ist.

    "Germany can do infrastructure: infrastructure that works, has an effect and is affordable." (translation)

  2. Das muss sich auch in den Boni der Bahnmanager widerspiegeln. Wer die Ziele erreicht, wird belohnt. Wer sie verfehlt, nicht.

    "That must also be reflected in rail managers' bonuses. Whoever meets the targets is rewarded. Whoever misses them is not." (translation)

  3. Wenn wir eine Strecke monatelang sperren – mit vielen Zumutungen für die Pendler und auch für den Güterverkehr –, dann muss sie danach spürbar besser funktionieren.

    "If we close a line for months, with a lot of hardship for commuters and for freight, it must work noticeably better afterwards." (translation)

  4. Ich fühle mich den Klimazielen im Verkehr verpflichtet.

    "I feel committed to the climate targets in transport." (translation)

In the debate that followed, Wolfgang Wiehle (AfD) said nothing would improve with this coalition; Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens) said there was not enough money to start new rail projects; Sascha Wagner (Left) called the change of minister a "political farce"; Isabel Cademartori (SPD) praised investment at a record level. See legislative work for the budget's next steps.

Archive

All verified speeches

Search by word or filter by topic. Summaries reflect only what the linked record says. Speeches before 2016 exist but could not be individually verified from the Bundestag's online archive and are not listed.

  1. Government question time (Regierungsbefragung)

    BundestagFederal Minister for TransportTransport priorities

    Questioned alongside Economics Minister Katherina Reiche. According to the Bundestag report he made reliability and predictability his guiding principle, so that people get "reliably from A to B" (translation). The same day the cabinet had approved the Autobahn financing bill.

    BundestagBundestag report

  2. Speech in the first reading of the 2027 budget, Einzelplan 12 (transport)

    BundestagFederal Minister for TransportBudget, rail, roads, waterways

    Opening speech of the transport budget debate: about €170 billion of transport investment to 2030, the Autobahn borrowing bill, more rail construction funding, managers' bonuses tied to targets, bodycams for train staff, drone detection at airports. The Bundestag report headlines the debate "Transport budget remains the largest investment budget".

    BundestagBundestag reportFull text

  3. Speech at the handover of the Federal Ministry for Transport

    BMV, BerlinIncoming Federal MinisterMinisterial handover

    Thanked his predecessor Patrick Schnieder and set out his aim: "Verkehrsinfrastruktur muss für die Menschen da sein" ("transport infrastructure must be there for people", translation), for commuters, for businesses that depend on supply chains and for families, using every mode of transport where it is strongest. The ministry published a video of the speech on 30 July.

    MinistryBMV videoPress release 070

  4. Procedural debate (Geschäftsordnungsdebatte) on the election of Federal Constitutional Court judges

    BundestagFirst Parliamentary Secretary, CDU/CSUAgenda, judge elections

    Moved and justified the CDU/CSU motion to take three judge elections off the agenda. He said the debate about one candidate had "in part lost all sense of proportion" (translation) and that judicial elections should not become the subject of heated political dispute. The motion passed.

    BundestagBundestag report

  5. Second and third reading: improving climate protection in pollution-control law

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupPlanning acceleration, Immissionsschutz

    Argued that what the governing coalition was delivering on faster planning and approval came too late and fell short of what the economic situation required.

    BundestagBundestag report

  6. Agreed debate on the German Sustainability Strategy

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupSustainability

    Said that sustainability questions are much larger than one parliamentary term and that politics cannot answer generational tasks if everyone looks only to the next election. Criticised the government on climate protection, public finances and social security.

    BundestagBundestag report

  7. Speech in the first reading of the 2024 budget, Einzelplan 10 (food and agriculture)

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupAgriculture budget

    Accused the government of unsettling farmers and people in rural areas and called funding for converting livestock barns too low and half-hearted.

    BundestagBundestag report

  8. Aktuelle Stunde: continued use of nuclear power for a reliable, climate-friendly energy supply in times of crisis

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupEnergy

    An Aktuelle Stunde is a short topical debate requested by a parliamentary group. Bilger called the shutdown of the last three nuclear plants "a victory of ideological stubbornness over practical reason" (translation), irresponsible, and demanded their operation until at least the end of 2024.

    BundestagBundestag report

  9. Aktuelle Stunde: avoiding hunger — producing more food instead of taking farmland out of use

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupFood security

    Told the governing parties that their agricultural policy had no majority "in Germany, in Europe or worldwide" (translation) and called for the G7 agriculture ministers' message to be to produce more food.

    BundestagBundestag report

  10. Debate on food and agriculture: agricultural reform and the consequences of the war in Ukraine

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupFood markets

    Described the international food market situation as extremely dramatic, with devastating consequences for people in Africa facing famine, and criticised the Agriculture Minister's course.

    BundestagBundestag report

  11. Debate on the government's planned environment policy

    BundestagDeputy Chair, CDU/CSU groupEnvironment ministry

    Called the transfer of climate policy from the Environment to the Economics Ministry the "dwarfing of a once proud ministry" (translation), driven by "green power arithmetic", and said the minister fell short of an unideological, technology-open environment policy.

    BundestagBundestag report

  12. Debate on opposition motions on electric mobility (Greens: "Elektromobilität auf die Überholspur")

    BundestagParliamentary State Secretary, BMVIE-mobility, air quality

    Spoke for the federal government in the debate on a Green motion on electric mobility, taken together with FDP and AfD motions. The plenary record shows he opened with the Leopoldina academy's report on air quality published that week, saying it confirmed the government's line on clean air while keeping measures proportionate. The photograph of him at the lectern on the Bundestag career page dates from this sitting.

    BundestagBundestag reportPlenary record 19/95

  13. Aktuelle Stunde on exhaust tests on humans and monkeys

    BundestagMP, CDU/CSUDiesel, research ethics

    According to the Bundestag report, he said science must serve the search for truth within ethical principles and must not be misused for advertising, but that hysteria was entirely inappropriate.

    BundestagBundestag report

  14. Debate on promoting intelligent mobility

    BundestagMP, CDU/CSU, transport committeeDigital mobility

    The Bundestag report ("Bundestag will intelligente Mobilität fördern") lists him among the speakers with a video of his contribution; it does not summarise what he said.

    BundestagBundestag report

  15. Debate on the expansion of the Rheintalbahn (Rhine Valley railway)

    BundestagMP, CDU/CSU, transport committeeRail infrastructure

    The Bundestag adopted a unanimous resolution on the Karlsruhe–Basel line. Bilger called it "justified, sensible and necessary" (translation): not every wish had been met, but it was a good result.

    BundestagBundestag report

Section C — reading the record

How Bundestag speeches work

Speaking time in the Bundestag is shared out by the Council of Elders (Ältestenrat) in proportion to the size of the parliamentary groups, and each group decides who uses its minutes. A typical contribution lasts between three and ten minutes. Members of the federal government, including ministers and parliamentary state secretaries, may speak at any time, but their speaking time is usually counted towards the governing groups.

That explains the shape of Bilger's record. As a backbencher on the transport committee he spoke on rail and mobility. As Parliamentary State Secretary from 2018 he spoke for the government in transport debates, while most of his parliamentary work took the form of answering written and oral questions, covered on questions and debates. In opposition after 2021 he took the group's lead on environment and agriculture, which is why that period is dominated by nuclear power, food security and the agriculture budget. As First Parliamentary Secretary his best-known appearance was procedural. As minister, he opens his ministry's budget debates.

Every plenary speech is recorded verbatim in the stenographic record (Plenarprotokoll), published on the Bundestag's document server, and most since 2009 can be watched in the Bundestag's media library. The textarchiv reports linked above are journalistic summaries written by the Bundestag's own staff. For video sources, see videos; for interviews and written statements, see statements.

Not includedEarlier speeches from 2009 to 2015 and further speeches as state secretary are recorded in the Bundestag's media library but could not be matched to a dated debate title for this archive. They will be added only once verified.

Sources

  1. Bundesregierung — Speech by Federal Minister Steffen Bilger on the 2027 Budget Act (8 Sep 2026)
  2. Deutscher Bundestag — Verkehrsetat bleibt größter Investitionshaushalt (8 Sep 2026)
  3. Deutscher Bundestag — Regierungsbefragung with Katherina Reiche and Steffen Bilger (7 Oct 2026)
  4. BMV — Press release 070/2026: Amtsübergabe (29 Jul 2026)
  5. BMV — Video: Rede von Steffen Bilger bei der Amtsübergabe (30 Jul 2026)
  6. Deutscher Bundestag — Geschäftsordnungsdebatte (11 Jul 2025)
  7. Deutscher Bundestag — Verbesserung des Klimaschutzes beim Immissionsschutz beschlossen (6 Jun 2024)
  8. Deutscher Bundestag — Fraktionen ziehen Bilanz zur Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie (12 Oct 2023)
  9. Deutscher Bundestag — Streit um die Zukunftsfähigkeit des Landwirtschaftsetats (7 Sep 2023 / 1 Feb 2024)
  10. Deutscher Bundestag — Aktuelle Stunde zur Kernkraft (19 Apr 2023)
  11. Deutscher Bundestag — Aktuelle Stunde: Hunger vermeiden (11 May 2022)
  12. Deutscher Bundestag — Hitzige Debatte über Agrarreform und Folgen des Ukraine-Krieges (8 Apr 2022)
  13. Deutscher Bundestag — Fraktionen positionieren sich zur geplanten Umweltpolitik (12 Jan 2022)
  14. Deutscher Bundestag — Oppositionsanträge zur Elektromobilität erörtert (11 Apr 2019)
  15. Deutscher Bundestag — Plenarprotokoll 19/95 (11 Apr 2019)
  16. Deutscher Bundestag — Abgasversuche an Menschen und Affen im Urteil der Fraktionen (2 Feb 2018)
  17. Deutscher Bundestag — Bundestag will intelligente Mobilität fördern (Jan 2016)
  18. Deutscher Bundestag — Einstimmiges Votum zum Ausbau der Rheintalbahn (28 Jan 2016)