1. The election of Zohran Mamdani, a progressive Muslim—though that may seem a contradiction in terms—as mayor of New York City was the big news of the last American election night, a sign that not everything is bought and paid for in Donald Trump's America and that the president's overacting doesn't fool everyone, even if it does fool the Party. Immediately, New York's unique character acted as a temper to certain enthusiasms: a cosmopolitan and singular city, with its own world and life, nothing like the heartland of America. And so a familiar refrain was repeated: what happens in New York is not representative of the country but rather for internal consumption, typical of a city open to the world and pleased with itself.
However, I think it's a mistake to ignore this event at a time when the left in America and Europe is noticeably diminished and it seems that not even the radicalization of the right—in an unstoppable drift toward post-democratic authoritarianism—manages to rouse it. From the outset, Mamdani's victory has a revolutionary value. Not everything is determined by the superpowers that dictate the course of events in the US, as Trump would have us believe. What is the distinguishing factor that Mamdani represents? What suggests that he is not destined to be a mere anecdote or just another gesture to remind us that New York is another world, but rather that he could be an indication of the formation of a certain alternative, even if it is exposed to every imaginable resistance?
2. Mamdani's novelty, what made him the chosen candidate over any other figure in the progressive movement of the big city, and what could lead to even greater success, is that with a progressive, personal, and empathetic style—one who looks people in the eye—he has run a campaign attentive to the everyday concerns of citizens. He hasn't simply adopted a certain identity as an alternative to Trump; he has embodied it. He has painted a picture emphasizing the real needs of the citizenry, that is, putting rhetoric at the service of daily demands: housing, employment, education, healthcare, mobility, and long-term care. In other words, his left-wing discourse hasn't been about spouting ideological rhetoric or engaging in catastrophic alarmism, but rather about speaking with people in mind and with a certain joy. This is precisely what the left needs if it doesn't want to continue fading into obscurity and unwittingly surrendering a portion of the electorate to the clamor of the far right. Losing the fear of committing to concrete proposals: this is Mamdani's success, which contrasts sharply with the shrinking of the European left. And this, evidently, places him before a great responsibility: to make his message a reality.
3. Naturally, it's a risk: the candidate sets the bar high, and if he fails, he could pay the price quickly. But it's the only way to avoid giving up on defending basic citizen rights. We already know that Trump isn't alone and that the powers that support him are very strong. But remaining silent and pretending nothing is happening only helps to strengthen them. If Mamdani manages to make real progress in the lives of New Yorkers, many of the miseries of current politics will be exposed, and the veils that now condition a citizenry with a constant sense of vertigo will begin to fall away. And it's interesting that it was a secular Muslim—if I may use the expression—who took that step.
We'll see the complicity he generates, and we'll also see the forcefulness of the response from those in power. We must prevent this from becoming a New York exception, one of those strange things typical of a different city. And we'll see if the dormant European left awakens after this experience and learns any lessons. And if all this begins to open a new chapter that reverses the unbearable dynamic of surrender to neo-fascism that runs through Europe and the United States, where, one after another, the right wing capitulates, adopting the far-right's mantra. This is also true in Catalonia, where the disorientation of Junts i Companyia plays into the hands of Aliança Catalana and Vox. We are in a time of warnings. It would be interesting if the left interpreted Mamdani's signal and was able to make it its own. It would help them revise their programs, lose their fear of calling things by their name, and generate a collective dynamic attentive to the problems of citizens and capable of pointing out the abuses of power that drive the European right.
