Spain newcomers enjoy Popular Party's worst vote in years

The Popular Party's mayoral candidate in Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, saw her majority crumble

This is a huge political upset in Spain - widely expected but nonetheless significant.

Spanish voters are traditionally unadventurous, always voting for the same party - centre-left or centre-right - often depending on the side their family supported during the Spanish civil war. Those rifts still run deep in Spain.

But Sunday's regional vote changed all that. The centre-right Popular Party (PP), in government at national level, received a passionate slap in the face.

Its popularity has been corroded by corruption scandals - not unknown in Spain, but deemed unacceptable by many in times of recession and austerity measures. And it was the austerity that had voters really riled.

Podemos supporters have been celebrating in Madrid

They have swallowed the medicine Greek voters seem so keen to spit out.

The economy is on the up, but ordinary people say they do not feel the benefits.

Like voters in many parts of Europe, Spaniards are angry with the powers that be. And so they punished the opposition Socialist Party, as well as the PP.

Spanish newspapers scream a headline now familiar across the continent: "The era of the two-party system is over!"

The fresh-faced leaders of alternative parties Citizens (Ciudadanos) and Podemos are rubbing their hands with glee. Expect Spain's general election later this year to be explosive.