2015 was the year of what political analysts like to call “anti-politics". The success of parties such as Syriza in Greece, the SNP in the Scottish tsunami and now Podemos in Spain have made elections much less predictable.

Jeremy Corbyn's victory in the Labour leadership contest is part of this broader trend in European politics. Indeed, if Britain had proportional representation there would almost certainly be a new Left party and he might well be leading it.

On the darker side, the growth of the far-Right political parties such as the National Front in France and the anti-immigration parties that have entered government in Norway and Finland are also part of the new disruptive politics breaking up the old binary patterns of political representation.

Most commentators expected populist movements such as Podemos (“We Can” in Spanish) to be here-today-gone-tomorrow reactions to the financial crash and austerity economics: like Occupy in 2011 or the anti-capitalist movement before that. But the new party leaders are proving more resilient than many expected.

Syriza's leader, Alex Tsipras, showed a remarkable ability to ride the political tiger in 2015 and managed to remain in power even after his government had capitulated to the deflationary and cost-cutting diktat of the European central bankers.

Mr Corbyn has survived his first 100 days intact, and is even now receiving some respectful reviews from newspaper critics who wrote him off only weeks ago. He has been able to use his support in the party grassroots to keep the Blairite old guard in check.

Podemos's young pony-tailed leader, Pablo Iglesias – no relation to singers of the same name – was thought to have burned out last summer. His two-year-old party was rocked by scandal after one of its leading figures resigned amid allegations of tax evasion.

But Podemos has roared back, coming third in the Spanish election this week, only a couple of points behind the old socialist party PSOE of Pedro Sanchez

Iglesias. Podemos won big in Catalonia by supporting calls for a referendum on independence in the autonomous region. Podemos had been equivocal on the issue, and many on the Spanish Left remain suspicious of regional nationalism.

But the Spanish left wingers are under assault from an insurgent centre-Right party, Ciudadanos, led by telegenic, 35-year-old Albert Rivera, who models himself on Tony Blair. Ciudadanos came fourth after Podemos with 14 per cent.

Rivera could hold the balance of power in any future coalition involving either the declining socialist PSOE, which came second, or Mariano Rajoy's PP, which has the largest number of seats but is unable to govern alone. The Basque and Catalan nationalists have also returned a bloc of MPs and could play a decisive role in coalition building after this fractured election

Rivera is a smart corporate lawyer with a gift for self promotion: he once posed naked in a campaign poster. He hails from Barcelona but is opposed to Catalan independence and is pro-EU.

Ciudadanos is liberal on social affairs, supporting the legalisation of drugs and prostitution, but is also pro-market, calling for radical cuts in income tax and the size of the Spanish state.

Ciudadanos has shadowy financial backers and Podemos claims Rivera is a puppet of the banks. But his programme has appealed to urban middle-class voters who want Spain to remain united, are opposed to the corruption but are uneasy with the neo-Marxism of Podemos.

If there were ever to be a Conservative revival in Scotland then Ciudadanos is probably what it would look like. Indeed, the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, seems very much in the Rivera mould with her liberal attitude to moral issues and her insistence on low taxes and the small state.

The only problem is the name. Tory is still a four letter word in Scotland. If only the Conservatives were able to rename themselves something like the Citizen's Party, which is what Ciudadanos means, they might be in business. But that's another story.

As things stand, the Scottish National Party under Nicola Sturgeon has got the disruptive new politics sewn up, despite being in government for eight years. With her Nationalist Left rhetoric, allied to really quite orthodox economic policies, she has left little room for newcomers.

The latest TNS poll suggests the SNP is in line for another landslide in Holyrood in May, winning 79 seats out of 129. It's a difficult balancing act, but for now Ms Sturgeon has made incumbency look like insurgency. And she hasn't had to stand naked.