Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim immigrant to win the New York mayoral election has focused all the attention, not only on the United States, but perhaps even more on Europe. Mamdani, who will take office on January 1, has all the qualities to attract attention and generate a breath of hope. Less than half a year ago he was an illustrious unknown with no political resume worth recording, without much relevance in the Democratic Party, since he came from a small faction with little influence and known for its radicalism, the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani began to stand out in the primaries last June where he was fortunate that the old Democratic establishment<\/em> decided to bet on the worst possible candidate, Andrew Cuomo, whom his own party had previously set aside after multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Cuomo, governor of the state of New York for three terms, represented one of those political families that are almost always in power and of which the new generations are tired. The mayoral elections were thus essentially a repeat of the summer primaries, as Mamdani and Cuomo \u2013 this time labelled independent \u2013 faced each other again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zohran Mamdani knew how to campaign in the name of hope, against pessimism and against hatred. He deliberately moved away from the trap of identity politics that moves part of the Democratic Party, especially its most liberal wing, to focus his campaign on the lives of the people, with their economic difficulties and their lack of prospects. Their promises dealt with the cost of living, the lack of affordable housing, the exorbitant price of childcare, the malfunctioning of public transport…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mamdani’s election in New York was accompanied by perhaps even more expressive victories for the two gubernatorial candidates from the states of Virginia and New Jersey. They are also two Democratic states, although Virginia’s outgoing governor is a Republican and polls in New Jersey predicted a very close result. The two candidates are young, belonging to the centrist and moderate wing of the party. Abigail Spanberger’s campaign in Virginia was also articulated around issues very similar to Mamdani’s: the cost of living, the lack of schools and hospitals in rural areas, and housing. At the same time, neither of the two winners had an impact on identity politics, which reduces too many aspects of people’s lives to the minority to which they belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New York is a huge city (nine million inhabitants), very expensive, which has been practically ungovernable for more than a decade, very unrepresentative of the rest of the country and more progressive than the rest of the country (Biden and Harris won the 2000 and 2024 presidential elections with overwhelming results, much higher than Mamdani’s). Now the new mayor will face the reality of the government and perhaps most of his promises will not be able to be implemented or only in part, with consequences that could be counterproductive. Targeting the rich is not enough, in a city where 1% of the population already contributes 40% of the taxes, although it has the highest concentration of millionaires in America and has a street called Wall Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, many place their hopes in Mandami as mayor being more pragmatic than ideological \u2013 although it is said that he campaigns in poetry and governs in prose \u2013 connecting with the tradition of the so-called sewer socialism<\/em> or constructive socialism born at the end of the nineteenth century in Wisconsin. Its proponents advocated reformism rather than revolution, de-emphasizing social theory and revolutionary rhetoric in favour of honest government and efforts to improve public health, cleaning up neighbourhoods and factories with new sanitation systems, and emphasizing improving public education for all. Ultimately, good governance as a fundamental pillar of political action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the United States and New York, we can draw two interesting conclusions from Mamdani’s victory. First, the viability of an affordable project has become a fundamental political issue. Mamdani’s campaign focused on making the city more affordable with his proposals to freeze rents, provide free buses and create municipally run grocery stores. Proposals that have their echo beyond New York. In Europe, in Western democracies, the housing crisis, inflation, wage stagnation and rising inequality are having a decisive influence on the political behaviour of citizens. The affordability of housing, of work, of welfare is now one of the main reasons why elections are won or lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the EU, increasing economic precariousness and unsatisfactory responses from governments have fuelled the belief, especially among young voters, that they do not live in a true democracy. This has contributed to the emergence of authoritarian and radical alternatives, especially among young men, for whom economic precariousness evokes nostalgia for a time when a wage supported entire families and women stayed at home. Mamdani’s victory suggests that this change is not inevitable. Her victory was based on 84% of the vote of women under 29 years of age and 68% of men, thus demonstrating that young people can be mobilized when the problems of everyday life are directly addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has also been seen in the recent elections in the Netherlands, where Rob Jetten’s liberal D66 party prevailed over Geert Wilders’ far-right party. The Netherlands is facing a shortage of around 400,000 homes, and social housing, which accounts for 30% of the market, has decades-long waiting lists. The victory of the D66 reflects an optimistic and pro-democratic mood: although the Netherlands remains mostly centrist and conservative-leaning, voters have preferred a positive leadership committed to pragmatic policies on housing, jobs and welfare over protest politics focused on immigration and identity issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second conclusion is that the political centre continues to lose ground. Mamdani’s election fits a broader pattern, as the rise of democratic socialists in the United States, along with Die Linke<\/em> in Germany, La France Insoumise<\/em> in France, and the U.K.’s Green Party indicate that political realignment is not only taking place by the populist right, but also by a growing alt-left. In this context, mainstream parties <\/em>are increasingly finding it difficult to obtain majorities, form governments or pass laws without resorting to parties considered radical. The question, therefore, is no longer whether to collaborate with extremist parties, but with which ones. That is why the EPP is clearly flirting with the far right, especially in national or regional governments (let’s look at the symptomatic cases of the PP and Vox in Spain, and PSD and Chega in Portugal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, for pro-democracy forces everywhere, addressing the issues that most concern citizens from a viable and affordable perspective is a sine qua non <\/em>for their political survival. It is in this situation that they can find the best allies so as not to have to lag the extreme right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photography: Zohran Mamdani, New York mayor elect, by Kara McCurdy, 10th February 2024. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n Arnau Giralt, trainee at the CETC, has participated to this issue of Idees d’actualita<\/em>t.<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim immigrant to win the New York mayoral election has focused all the attention, not only on the United States, but perhaps even more on Europe. Mamdani, who will take office on January 1, has all the qualities to attract attention and generate a breath of hope. Less than half a year ago he was an illustrious unknown with no political resume worth recording, without much relevance in the Democratic Party, since he came from a small faction with little influence and known for its radicalism, the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani began to stand out\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":82669,"template":"","category_newspaper":[634],"segment":[],"subject":[],"class_list":["post-82688","newspaper","type-newspaper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category_newspaper-634"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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