Last week’s regional and local elections in Spain sent a powerful message to the established mainstream parties of the centre-right and the centre-left, namely that their dominance of the country’s political landscape is over.

For the past three decades, power has alternated between the Socialists and the Popular Party which between them nearly always won an absolute majority of seats in Parliament, regional parliaments and city councils. After last Sunday’s vote, this trend seems to have suffered a severe setback with an angry electorate transforming Spain’s two-party system into a four-party one.

The eurozone crisis, strong austerity measures and corruption allegations against the two main parties were the main reasons for the swing towards two new movements: Podemos, a left-wing populist party quite similar to Greece’s Syriza, and Ciudadanos, a market-friendly centrist party. These new parties achieved impressive results in the regional and local assemblies, often coming third and fourth in the popular vote and denying the Popular Party and Socialists from achieving absolute majorities in most areas.

In a major shock result, the Popular Party lost control of its stronghold Madrid – after 24 years in control of the Spanish capital – to a recently-founded alliance of leftist groups. And in Barcelona an anti-poverty party, supported by Podemos and other left-wing groups, is likely to occupy the mayor’s seat after defeating the CiU, the Catalan centre-right party

The two main parties will now have to negotiate coalitions with minority parties in all 13 of Spain’s 17 regions that voted on Sunday alongside more than 8,000 towns and cities. Compromise politics and coalition building is new to Spain and we are likely to see weeks of negotiations for regional and municipal governments – which have vast powers and budgets – to be formed.

Although Spain’s ruling Popular Party led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy saw its share of the vote in these elections decease to 27 per cent from the 37 per cent it received in 2011, it still emerged as the largest party in the country, which is a small consolation.

The Opposition Socialists got 25 per cent of the vote, slightly down on their 2011 result, which is a disappointing result for them.

The combined percentage share of the vote of the Popular Party and the Socialists amounted to only 52 per cent, compared to 65 per cent four years ago, and this shows that there has been a major shift in voter preferences which could have major implications for the country’s national election which will be held later this year.

Spain’s political class will have to learn to build coalition governments

These results also show the two new parties, Podemos and Ciudadanos, to be the new kingmakers in Spain, but not the kings. They might be able to prevent the main parties from governing on their own in many regions, but they themselves are not strong enough to lead such administrations.

This, of course, points to coalition building, (perhaps the Socialists with Podemos and the Popular Party with Ciudadanos), something new to Spain, and a possible similar scenario after this year’s general election.

For Rajoy, Sunday’s result is obviously disappointing, and his party even lost control of the regions of Valencia and Madrid, two Popular Party strongholds. Over the past four years Rajoy has helped to pull Spain out of its crisis through economic reforms, and the economy is expected to grow by three per cent this year, quite an achievement.

Unfortunately, however, the country’s unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high, at 23 per cent, and many people are still struggling to make ends meet.

In other words, the economic turnaround has not yet benefitted the average man in the street, so voters’ anger is certainly understandable. Furthermore, it looks like Rajoy underestimated the Spanish people’s anger over corruption, which certainly contributed to the swing against the two main mainstream parties.

Is the Popular Party likely to be defeated at the next general election? Not necessarily. First of all, the Popular Party received the largest number of votes in last week’s election and Podemos is certainly not as strong as its counterpart in Greece, Syriza. It is interesting to note that a large number of voters did not vote for Podemos when turning their backs on the Popular Party and the Socialists but for the pro-business centrist Ciudadanos, which could be a coalition partner for the Popular Party (or perhaps even the Socialists) after the next general election.

If the economic figures continue to improve and Rajoy shows a bit more understanding of the tough times that so many Spaniards are going through, as well as more of a commitment to fight corruption, his Popular Party could well emerge as the largest bloc after the next general election. What is almost certain, however, is that the face of Spanish politics has changed and that the next government will be a coalition. Rajoy’s party could well be the senior partner in this coalition.

The inevitability of a coalition government means that all Spain’s political parties will have to learn how to compromise and to show maturity when dealing with each other. Podemos and Ciudadanos, in particular, must decide for themselves if they are to live up to their responsibilities and become potential parties of government rather than just protest movements.

What Spain, a leading player in the EU, does not need is uncertainty and political instability – which could undermine a lot of the economic progress achieved over the last four years – even if a lot of Spaniards have not seen any tangible improvements in their daily lives during this period. Spain’s political class will have to learn to build coalition governments, which after all, have proved successful in so many other European countries.