The sudden rise of a new anti-establishment party has transformed Spanish politics a year before a general election, forcing the center-right government to veer away from austerity and the left-leaning opposition to scramble for new leaders.

In just a year since its founding, the party "Podemos" – We Can – has overturned the two-party system in place since Spain embraced democracy in the 1970s.

It is now polling around even with the ruling People's Party and main opposition Socialists, and has even led in some polls.

With a third of voters still undecided, Spain's polls and Podemos' impact, is still hard to predict.

A Dec. 7 poll in El Pais predicted Podemos would place second with 25 percent of the vote, just below the Socialists with 27.7 percent and ahead of Rajoy's PP with 20 percent.

A poll two weeks earlier in El Mundo said Podemos would win with 28.3 percent of the vote, with the PP second.

Polls have shown Podemos taking more votes from the left than from the right but still eating into both main parties' support.

In Greece, the far left Syriza party emerged as the main opposition after the mainstream Socialists withered.

...