After a number of heated debates in the Spanish parliament and closed-doors meetings between the government and the Basque leaders, no agreement was reached. In response, an official Spanish decree was approved on July 21, 1876 by Prime Minister Antonio Canovas del Castillo, which abolished the Basque institutional system of Biscay, Álava, and Gipuzkoa. The decree reduced the Basque province to the status held by Navarre after 1841, and essentially ended Basque home rule. This "Abolition Act" was "a punishment law," as stated by the Chair of the Council of Ministers, and guaranteed "the expansion the Spanish constitutional union to all Spain," as stated by the Prime Minister Canovas. The first article of the law proclaimed: