"Being on the left means taking on great challenges. And achieving them". The New York Assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, and the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, show harmony in the latest video that the New York city council has uploaded to its social networks. In an informal tone, even though both are dressed in formal wear, the two political leaders dedicate themselves to throwing paper balls into a trash can. And as the message accompanying the tweet says, they end up making all of them, despite the risks they take symbolically: Sánchez opts for the skyhook, the hook shot patented by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the great legends of the NBA, and Mamdani dares with the shot with his eyes closed that Michael Jordan ironically dedicated to Dikembe Mutombo.

Jaume Collboni has returned from New York with an idea under his arm. After meeting with Mayor Mamdani, he announced that Barcelona will have a network of affordable shops. The concern is easy to understand: in five years, the purchase of food has become nearly 30% more expensive, and for many families this item already weighs too much on the family budget. The proposal also has a certain glamour: it has been presented as a "genuinely New York experience". But what does it exactly mean to make shopping more affordable?It may be difficult for us to fill the fridge for different reasons. Perhaps in the neighborhood we do not have enough supply of fresh produce. Or perhaps we have supermarkets and shops within reach, but we cannot afford their prices. In one case, there is a lack of supply; in the other, purchasing power: having a store downstairs is useless if we cannot pay for it. Both hinder access to adequate nutrition, but they are not the same problem nor do they require the same response.The City Council's pilot project will begin in La Marina del Prat Vermell, a growing neighborhood where the commercial offer is still limited. Bringing fresh produce there responds to the first of the problems and makes sense. But the project wants to go further: it not only promises proximity, but also affordable prices. And here begins the most interesting question: what will make them so? Because lowering the price has a cost: someone has to assume it, be it the City Council, the manager, the suppliers, or a combination of all three.There is no single way to lower the cost of groceries. New York is planning five municipal supermarkets: the city covers part of the costs and requires the savings to be passed on to prices, with a discount for everyone who shops there. Istanbul, on the other hand, has for decades combined a public network of food at low prices with aid directed at families with fewer resources. In the first case, public support makes the same basket cheaper regardless of who is doing the shopping; in the second, part of the effort is concentrated on those with lower income. Each formula allocates public resources differently and does not necessarily benefit the same families.Barcelona, furthermore, does not start from zero. It has a network of municipal markets, farmers' markets, and consumer cooperatives, as well as experience with aid such as prepaid cards. It already has, therefore, instruments to act both on supply and on the purchasing power of families. The question is whether it is necessary to create a new structure or if part of the objective can be achieved by reinforcing, connecting, or reorienting those that already exist. In Marina itself, in fact, the City Council was already working to promote local commerce before the trip to New York. Looking at what other cities are doing can be useful, but the question is not where we import the idea from, but who we want to reach, with what instrument, and what problem we want to solve.

Yesterday, an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her home because she could not afford the rent increase from 500 to 2,750 euros. Since this eviction happened in Madrid, where the loudspeaker resonates louder –also in Catalonia–, this image of this lady, whose name is Maricarmen, has become the symbol of the wreckage that the real estate market is causing in the lives of thousands of people.Between 7,000 and 8,000 evictions take place in Catalonia every year. The vast majority are due to non-payment of rent (approximately 75%). Everything is legal: there is a law, which the judge applies, with the protection of the police. It is legal, but it is neither ethical nor decent. And this is when all eyes turn towards politics, so that it may correct what we call the abuses of the market. But for decades now, the market has been winning over politics. Here and everywhere else. And there is no need for a dramatic eviction like yesterday's to verify its effects: how many young people cannot emancipate themselves from their parents' house because they cannot afford rent –with the consequent effect that this has on their future expectations, of living as a couple, of starting their own family, of having children–? How many families have had to leave their lifelong neighborhood or city because they cannot afford to live there?The remote and immediate causes of the housing crisis have been long debated. You hear from developers and they point out that there are few building plots, you hear from the real estate sector and it says there is a lack of supply, you hear everyone saying that public housing has not been built, you hear from small landlords and they say they do not want to be treated like large holders, like vulture funds and speculators, and having to carry out, out of their own pockets, the housing policies that governments have not implemented. The problem is that the real estate market is eating away at everyone's life. Do you remember the case of that teacher from Mallorca who worked in Ibiza and every day took a plane to go teach classes in Ibiza because it was more cost-effective to take a plane than to pay rent? Well, that's it.The effects on collective morale, the loss of trust in democracy, and the increase in lack of solidarity are enormous. Here and everywhere. If there is a globalized problem, it is housing. In this context, yesterday Pedro Sánchez took a photo with the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, which he finished with the following phrase: “The powerful fear us”. It is the type of statement that should be made with actions rather than words, especially when the facts contradict you. A bad day to say “The powerful fear us”, because it is not true. The image of Maricarmen from yesterday is one of great social violence.Yes, politics has its codes, and international alliances are highly sought after, the photo with Mamdani is sought after, but the housing problem surpasses them all, even the political leaders with the greatest social conscience.Good morning

Elif Eralp and Zohran Mamdani have won the elections in two global cities, with indisputable historical and global reach, and with an agenda for intervention in the housing market. In the case of Berlin, everyone is talking about the expropriations that Eralp wants to carry out, which are the result of a deliberate process backed by a referendum. The citizens of Berlin were asked if they would approve the expropriation of the property of the 12 large landlords with more than 3,000 apartments in the city, with a potential impact on 243,000 rental apartments out of 1.5 million apartments in the city. The detractors of the measure argue that the expropriations will create legal uncertainty and that a harmful message is being sent to investors. They do not speak of the residents who live there, of the economic need to provide stability to city workers so that there is dynamism, and of the duty of the property to carry out proper maintenance of all these apartments. In a 2018 presentation by the Housing Agency of Catalonia, the case of a portfolio of 16,000 apartments that BBVA had sold to the investment fund Cerberus was analyzed: the portfolio consisted of 4,995 empty apartments, 2,351 occupied, 4,000 rented, 1,306 ceded, and about 3,306 without possession. These are mostly apartments accumulated through mortgage foreclosures (families who could not meet their mortgage payments). The concentration of property is a very recent phenomenon in cities, and it is a very important morphological change, because the development structure we have in mind (what we learned at architecture school) is no longer in style: there are no longer small commercial companies building simultaneously next to each other, with ten-year real estate cycles, like at the genesis of the Eixample. It has reached a point where the properties of a single holder are spread across different cities and countries and portfolios of thousands of apartments are traded in transactions where often the condition of the apartment and the building is deplorable. But they don't even visit them. Also in Madrid, as I read in Infobae, the data from the AVS deposits indicate that there is a concentration of property in the hands of a few operators: more than 80% of rental apartments are in the hands of some funds and companies that own 5 or more apartments.

Pedro Sánchez and Zohran Mamdani. Two names from the left, with international projection, who have joined forces this Wednesday in New York to stage an alliance in favor of progressive policies on a global scale. "The powerful are afraid of us," the Spanish prime minister made clear, who was invited by the mayor of New York to an informative breakfast taking advantage of his stay in the American city during the United Nations General Assembly. "Spain is demonstrating that another economic model is possible, and New York, that this ambition can transform our cities," reported Sánchez, in a speech covered by Efe.

The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, met a few days ago with his counterpart from New York, Zohran Mamdani, on the occasion of the U20 or Urban 20, a summit of mayors from 34 G-20 cities. From the very moment of the resounding electoral victory that brought him to the mayoralty of New York, Mamdani became a global progressive icon and a kind of anti-Trump counterpower (although that is more for show than anything else), and therefore photos with him are highly prized by European left-wing leaders. Collboni got his photo with Mamdani and something more: the endorsement of the New York mayor for Mayors for Housing, an international alliance of mayors committed to promoting policies against the housing crisis, which Barcelona has already led at a European level and which now seeks to expand internationally.It cannot be said that the U20 was not productive for Collboni nor that he arrived there empty-handed. Barcelona was the only city from the Spanish state to participate and was able to contribute the regulation of rental prices, the total ban on tourist rentals, or the expropriation of vacant homes, measures that have certainly been approved (but are not being applied, or not enough, in one of the preferred cities for vulture funds and large speculators, both banking and non-banking). The Mamdani administration has, for its part, approved the freezing of rent prices for rent-controlled apartments or the creation of public supermarkets to guarantee access for poor families to basic products; Collboni committed to opening the first of these supermarkets by the year 2027 in the Barcelona neighborhood of La Marina.All of this comes to be a kind of alliance of mayors against speculation and it is very good. But it is difficult to maintain the spirit that animates the assumption of these commitments while disregarding the protests this past Sunday against the airport expansion, a great mobilization that also took place in Palma and Ibiza, where it had the dimensions of a historic demonstration. The protests are based on a clear finding: the expansions of El Prat, as well as Son Sant Joan, as well as Es Codolar are being done to increase the touristification of Barcelona, Mallorca, and Ibiza. And the increase in the touristification of Barcelona, Mallorca, and Ibiza is directly linked to the lack of control over prices and housing speculation, which is, in fact, one of the direct consequences. The fabulous extractive machine that is Aena may hide behind the need to have infrastructure that is competitive with other large international airports, but this does not take away even a bit of the seriousness of a system failure—the housing crisis—that has also acquired an international dimension and that is especially suffocating in intensely touristified zones like Catalonia (especially Barcelona) or the Balearic Islands (especially Mallorca and Ibiza). Double standards do nothing at all to alleviate this failure.

Residents of Barcelona and New York face the difficulty of living in their cities day after day. Large, open, and tourist-friendly. The high cost of housing in both urban areas also extends to the shopping basket and basic services, widening a social gap that is becoming increasingly deep and driving the working class out of the place where they had decided to forge their life project. In a meeting prior to this weekend's U20 cities summit, the mayors of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and New York, Zohran Mamdani, agreed this Saturday that, despite being very different cities, they face a common challenge: ensuring that the success and appeal of their metropolises do not end up making them uninhabitable for Barcelonans and New Yorkers.

All polls point to a PP victory in the upcoming elections –except for the CIS one–, but Pedro Sánchez does not consider it lost and will fight the battle for the left on a national scale and also on a global level. In Moncloa, they are convinced that the re-edition of the progressive coalition goes beyond Spain and stands in contrast to the far-right wave that is gaining ground all over Europe. That is why he is doing two things: on one hand, intensifying Pedro Sánchez's media presence; and on the other, recovering the international agenda, taking advantage of his visit next week to the United Nations General Assembly to hold a joint event with the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. A staging of the progressive alliance against Donald Trump.

Not one, not two, but three. The three allies of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have swept the Democratic Party primaries held this Tuesday, which decided who will run in November to represent the citizens of New York in the Washington Capitol. Their victory has shaken the party establishment, which had supported other candidates and will now have to evaluate how to face the formidable growth of the Democratic Socialists (DSA).

A few months ago, this March, Donald Trump received a delegation from the North American Football Federation and asked the coach, the Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, if the United States can win the World Cup. "I told him that we can win it," said the former Espanyol player. Pochettino has a challenge ahead: achieve good results and get the team to excite a country that arrives very divided at the event. The debut will be against the Paraguay team on Saturday at three in the morning.

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.

What is the identity of New York? Because its connection to the country is relative, like letting the air flow, a kind of living apart together that binds and liberates her at the same time; her identity is not based on a tradition exactly shared with the rest. It does not come from the past but from the future, not from the backcountry but from frontierMore than a distinct culture, it's based on a shared energy, a temperament: speed, ambition, diversity, and practical tolerance. The city offers opportunities, not roots. That's why the streets and avenues have no names, but they do have a soul. That's why it aims so high and looks so little at the ground. The idea is that it's a place where everyone can be themselves without having to participate in a... us Previously. And this, which may seem like a lack of identity, is paradoxically its hallmark.

One of the central concerns of democratic forces is how to counter the simplistic and deceptive, yet widespread and seemingly effective, discourse propagated by the far right, especially through social media, which is replacing our traditional ways of getting information and forming our opinions. (The other day, in a shop in downtown Barcelona, ​​a young woman working there was surprised to see me carrying a diary under my arm and exclaimed, naively, "In yours?") Spanglish: "But Mr. Josep Maria, how old-fashioned, reading a paper newspaper!")

June 2017. Catalonia is in turmoil amidst the independence movement, on the cusp of a summer that would mark a turning point in Catalan politics. But while the discussion focuses on the October 1st referendum, Barcelona En Comú, led by then-mayor Ada Colau, organizes a municipal summit that brings together 180 cities and some 700 activists from the international left in the Catalan capital. This is Fearless Cities, an event that will later expand to the United States and Europe. There, a connection is forged that will be key to BComú's mobilization strategy from then on: that of the Working Families Party (WFP), a like-minded organization. to the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdaniand a new hope for the left in a time of rising far-right sentiment. The first contact occurred when Colau became mayor, at the request of this party, due to the victory of the BComú candidacy in the 2015 elections. However, the relationship between the two groups grew even closer in the lead-up to the 2019 campaign, when Colau managed to retain her position thanks to the PSC's Ernest Maragall.

The newly elected mayor of New York has won over the disaffected electorate of one of the world's most important urban centers. He has done so with a dynamic communication style and, through the most powerful channels with mass attention capacity, has managed to convince the residents of the former New Amsterdam. Saturday Night Live Ten days ago, he parodied a still-campaigning Mamdani who wanted to offer voters free healthcare, affordable housing, and free Wi-Fi. Then, he asked himself, "As mayor, can I make it happen? I don't know yet, to be honest," and after a pause, added, "But together we'll find out... that the answer is no."

The victory of Zohran MamdaniBorn in Uganda and raised in Queens, Joe Biden's run for mayor of New York City coincided with the departure of Nancy Pelosi, the historic Democratic leader and first woman to speak in the House of Representatives. Knowing her track record, it's hard to believe it's a coincidence. Pelosi doesn't leave anything to chance. Her decision to leave politics signals a generational shift, something she championed when she pressured Joe Biden to step down afterward. of his disastrous presidential debate against Donald Trump

This week Zohran Mamdani has made headlines around the world after winning in New York City In the time of Donald Trump. This 34-year-old American, a self-proclaimed socialist of Muslim origin, has managed to connect with the youth vote and offer a glimmer of hope to the Democratic Party, although it would be a mistake to think that the results can be extrapolated to the entire United States. Through resources also used by the far right—social media, simple messages, and promises difficult to keep—he secured victory, but the key to his discourse has been to put the material conditions of the population, especially housing, back at the center. This is an issue that has not been central to the Democratic Party's discourse in recent years; otherwise, it's difficult to explain why Trump won the election as he did. Mamdani offers a formula for fighting the far right, which is to talk about affordability.

Historian Yuval Noah Harari was asked what he saw behind Trump's renaming of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. His response, accompanied by a mischievous smile, was: "It's simple. There's no need to look for complicated explanations. We went from defense to war. What could be easier to understand?" War means war. It's the politics of fear, of aggression, of force as the law of the new world order. Of aggressive nationalism.

Looking at rental and home purchase prices, and seeing how salaries are clearly being outpaced by the rising cost of living, it's no surprise that a candidate who campaigned on slogans like "a city we can afford" won the New York City mayoral election.

Because there was an alert and she was working from home today, the comedy writer saw on TV that the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, will be the first Muslim to govern the city. She looked at the letters, yellow with red trim, so... Pulp Fictionwhich have helped to raise his profile in the campaign. Now, on Melero's program, they say he met his wife, a visual artist with straight bangs, on "Halal Tinder."