EU election results in Spain broke the hold of the two major parties for the first time.
The Ruling conservatives (Popular Party) and the opposition (Socialist Party) have traditionally shared more than 80% of the vote.
The weekend’s vote, however, saw them take less than 50%.
Turning the tables were a number of smaller parties, especially those with an anti-austerity agenda and leaning towards the left.
Gaining third place with 10% of the vote was the United Left coalition, with an historic link to the country’s former Communist party.
But the greater surprise was the three-month old party which was given 8% of the vote to come in fourth with five seats in the EU.
“Podemos” (“we can”) (now, where have we heard that before?) says it stands against the way the EU has been run in recent times while not being against the EU in principle.
Podemos fears the country has become controlled by the Troika, that austerity has contributed to the record 26% jobless rate, and believes that the country must regain some of its sovereignty.
"I want to stop young Spaniards serving tapas and beers to the rich in northern Europe," Party leader and university professor Pablo Iglesias said.
Overall, the Popular Party remained the largest, but with much reduced support.
In Catalonia pro-independence parties were the clear winners. The Catalan government plans to hold a vote on independence from Spain in November. Madrid is adamant that such a vote would be illegal.
