For years, radical forces in Europe have only been able to resist austerity policies, rarely engaging in offensive strategic thought and action, and always from outside government. But on February 6, when thousands demonstrated in favor of the new Greek government, in front of an unpoliced and open parliament, it was clear that something significant had changed.

In the words of Syriza central committee member Stathis Kouvelakis, there is a “spreading mood of mobilization, of regained dignity, of a desire both to support the government in the face of the blackmail and to put pressure on it to halt any retreat.” Against Germany’s insistence that “elections do not change anything,” against leftist fears that the government would be forced to back down immediately, Syriza seems to have opened space for heightened struggle against neoliberal hegemony in Europe.

The new administration can still backtrack, sell out, or lose in many ways, and its opponents might succeed in closing the space opened since the election. But we have to remember the impressions and lessons of these weeks — however ephemeral they might turn out to be — because they testify to something rare: a political invention. Syriza has turned the mere possibility of anti-troika politics into concrete practice. In doing so, they have forged a path that is relevant to anti-austerity forces in the rest of Europe.