from several SMS between Bárcenas and Rajoy from 2011 through 2013 in which Rajoy promised help to Bárcenas and gave him encouragement. The most recent of these messages was in March 2013, when the Bárcenas affair had already broke out. Under pressure from international media and opposition parties threatening him with a motion of censure, Rajoy spoke out to Congress in an extraordinary plenary session on 1 August. Rajoy denied any criminal responsibility, which he attributed solely to Bárcenas, but recognized "errors" and "having trusted the wrong person". This did not prevent the opposition bloc from demanding Rajoy's resignation, but with the PP commanding an absolute majority in parliament and with no judicial proof on Rajoy's direct involvement in the scandal, chances for a successful motion were slim. At the same time, a corruption scandal affecting Duke of Palma Iñaki Urdangarín, the Nóos case, resulted in the charging in April 2013 of his spouse Cristina de Borbón, Infanta of Spain and daughter of King Juan Carlos I, for tax fraud and money laundering. She was summoned to court in February 2014, and in November 2014, the High Court of Palma de Mallorca upheld charges against her, paving the way for her to face trial, though only on tax fraud charges. In June 2015, King Felipe VI officially deprived his sister of her dukedom, privately announcing his intention beforehand. These corruption allegations severely eroded the Spanish Royal Family's popularity within Spain; according to an opinion poll by the CIS, between 1995 and 2013 the Spanish monarchy's approval rating had dropped from 7.5 to 3.68 on a scale of 10 amongst Spaniards. In late 2014, the sudden emergence of several episodes of corruption that had taken place over the course of the past years and decades was compared to the Italian Tangentopoli episode in the 1990s. As a result, this episode has been dubbed by some media as 'the Spanish Tangentopoli''' or 'Black October'. Starting in July 2014, former Catalonia President Jordi Pujol had come under investigation after he acknowledged possessing a large, undeclared, familiar fortune, with several of his sons being already under investigation on alleged tax offense charges. By October 2014, most of his family had already come under investigation under alleged money laundering, fraud, public contract kickbacks and other tax offenses. In early October a massive expenses scandal was uncovered involving former Caja Madrid senior executives and advisers. At