ABSTRACT
After its electoral breakthrough in the country’s legislative elections in May-June 2012, the perspective of becoming Greece’s next governing party became a real possibility for Syriza. According to the party’s strategy at the time, such a development would undoubtedly lead to a conflict with the country’s lenders in the foreseeable future which would require an inventive and original tactic in order for Syriza’s political agenda to spread around Europe. In line with this objective, party leaders in Athens urged members living abroad to create local branches allowing Greeks migrants and expats to join the party. In less than a year, party sections had been founded in many European cities such as Paris, London, Berlin, Edinburgh, Brussels, Vienna, Munich, as well as Stockholm, providing necessary organizational structures for different generations of Greeks willing to participate in local social movements and the political field in general as representatives of Syriza. This chapter examines the building process of these party branches. Using Syriza’s section in Paris as a case-study, it aims to identify the sociological profile of the agents that were active in this process and define the social and political spaces where they invested their militant capital.
