least 86 bankers, politicians, officers and trade union leaders were accused of using undeclared "black" credit cards between 2003 and 2012, spending over €15 million in private expenditures. Involved was former Caja Madrid chairman between 1996 and 2009, Miguel Blesa, but also notable members from the PP, PSOE and IU parties, such as former Deputy PM, IMF Managing Director and Caja Madrid/Bankia chairman Rodrigo Rato, as well as members from Spain's main trade unions UGT and CCOO. In late October, judge Pablo Ruz charged former PP Secretary General and several-times Minister during José María Aznar's tenure, Ángel Acebes, with a possible misappropriation of public funds as a result of the Barcenas affair. A few days later, Ruz' inquiry on a Treasury investigation unveiled that the People's Party could have spent as much as €1.7 million of undeclared money on works of its national headquarters in Madrid between 2006 and 2008. On 27 October, a large anti-corruption operation, Operation Punica, resulted in 51 people arrested because of their involvement in a major scandal of public work contract kickbacks, amounting at least €250 million. Among those arrested were notable municipal and regional figures from both PSOE and PP, as well as a large number of politicians, councilors, officials and businessmen in the Madrid community, Murcia, Castile and León and Valencia. On 26 November, judge Ruz summoned Health Minister Ana Mato to court after concluding she could have benefited from several corruption crimes allegedly committed by her former husband Jesús Sepúlveda, charged in the Gürtel case. As a result, Ana Mato resigned from her office that same day, defending that she had not been charged with any penal crime, but declaring that she did not want to bring further harm to her party. A Congress plenary in which Rajoy was to announce legal reforms against corruption had been scheduled for 27 November several weeks previously; the media concluded that Rajoy had forced Mato's resignation in order to prevent a complicated political situation on that day. Catalan independence movement On 9 November, one month before the election, the Parliament of Catalonia passed an official declaration that launched the "initiation of the process of independence of Catalonia" in a 72–63 vote with no abstentions. Two days later, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy threatened to suspend the political powers of 21 key political figures in the Catalonian independence movement if they moved forward regarding the provisions of