In June 2018 the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, wanted to turn back certain asylum seekers at the German border. Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted a European solution. Seehofer’s party, the CSU, argued that the minister’s responsibility for his own portfolio took precedence, and that he could act alone if necessary. Lawyers debated how far the chancellor’s Richtlinienkompetenz, her power to set the guidelines of policy, reached into a minister’s portfolio. Seehofer said: Mir gegenüber hat sie mit der Richtlinienkompetenz nicht gewedelt. She did not wave the guideline power at me.