The 2026 budget is currently being debated in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. The draft was presented by Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil and will be deliberated for around two months before being voted on at the end of November. The discussions will not be easy. Many ministries will have to work with significantly smaller budgets, because tax revenues are far from sufficient to cover government spending. To kick off the budget talks, Klingbeil spoke of tough times ahead. The government, made up of the center-right bloc of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), will have to make "courageous and sometimes uncomfortable decisions," he said. "It will be exhausting, it will be challenging." The federal transport ministry had not really worried about being hit by budget cuts. After all, the renovation of the crumbling infrastructure is a top priority, and the government just recently launched a €500 billion ($587 billion) credit-financed special fund for infrastructure and climate protection. "In many areas, our country has been ruined by austerity. We want the excavators to get to work quickly," has been the credo of Finance Minister Klingbeil.