"If anyone can teach how to defeat Trump, it's the city that gave birth to him": Mamdani's triumphant speech

BarcelonaWith his ideology, age, religion, and skin color, Zohran Mamdani embodies the idea of change in the face of Donald Trump. In his first victory speech in Brooklyn, he sought to reinforce this. "I am young, despite my efforts to make myself old," he said, eliciting laughter from the audience. "I am a Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And, most seriously, I don't intend to apologize for being so." For nearly 25 minutes, before a euphoric crowd, he combined a defiant tone with hope and irony.

Against the Democratic establishment

Mamdani reserved a good portion of his speech to attack Andrew M. Cuomo, the former Democratic mayor whom he had defeated both in the June primaries and in Tuesday's election. "My friends, we have brought down a political dynasty." "I wish Andrew Cuomo the best in his personal life. But let tonight be the last time I utter his name."

Tribute to the working class

The newly elected mayor paid a heartfelt tribute to immigrants and the New York working class, a true melting pot of cultures that has built the financial capital of the world: "In the calloused hands of bicycle couriers, in fingers scarred by kitchen burns, in Yemeni shopkeepers and Mexican grandmothers, in Trinidadian taxi drivers who cook and Ethiopian aunts."

Hope for the youth

Mamdani has spoken to his young base – “The new generation of New Yorkers who refuse to accept that the promise of a better future is a relic of the past” – and has promised an ambitious governing program, which he compared to that of Fiorello LaGuardia, the New Deal mayor of the 1930s. However, it is clear that the real challenge is not to Mae Blanca, but to Donald Trump, who campaigned for Cuomo and called Mamdani a “communist,” in addition to threatening to cut federal funding to the city if the Democrat were elected. A threat that has not frightened New Yorkers.

I challenge Trump

The Democrat addressed Trump directly: "Donald Trump, I know you're watching, and I have three words for you: turn up the volume." He portrayed the president as the personification of the ills plaguing New York—"bad landlords" and "the culture of corruption"—and argued that the city that gave him birth should also be the one to teach the United States how to defeat him. "If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it's the city that gave him life." "And if there's a way to scare a despot, it's by dismantling the conditions that allowed him to accumulate power," he concluded.

Promise of Change

In a speech peppered with Arabic words, Mamdani reiterated his main campaign promises: freezing rents, implementing free bus service, and establishing universal childcare. "Our greatness will be anything but abstract," he concluded to applause.