After a huge defeat in the 1884 Folketinget parliamentary election, in which the Højre party only gained 19 out of 102 seats, he simply refused to resign as Head of Government.

A reason to why the Monarch agreed to nine such annual provisional laws, the King and Estrup both believed in the building of the Copenhagen defense wall (Københavns befæstning) at the time known as "Vestencienten" built between 1888 and 1892.

[5][6] As Interior Minister in the Cabinet of Frijs, Estrup took control of the railroads of Jutland and Funen, which had been ceded to an English consortium in 1861.

He expanded the railroads in Vendsyssel and built new lines from Skanderborg to Silkeborg and along the west coast of Jutland to Esbjerg, earning him the nickname "Railway Minister".

In 1877 Estrup was unable to secure support for his budget bill in Folketinget, as demanded by the Danish Constitution, but chose instead to issue it as a provisional law.