(New York) The new Democratic mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani promised Thursday to “set an example to the world” by showing that “the left can govern”, in a speech on the occasion of his inauguration.
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“Many will be watching us. They want to know if the left can govern (…) They want to know if the difficulties that affect them can be resolved. So, united, driven by our determination, we will do what New Yorkers do better than anyone: we will set an example to the world,” said the 34-year-old elected official.
In front of an audience of thousands of people gathered in the cold at the foot of city hall in Manhattan, the new mayor, from the small Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), assured that he would not renege on his campaign promises, based on the fight against the high cost of living.
“From today, we will govern with breadth and boldness. We may not always succeed, but we can never be blamed for lacking courage and for trying,” he said.
The new Democratic mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani promised Thursday to “set an example to the world” by showing that “the left can govern”, in a speech on the occasion of his inauguration.
Democrat Zohran Mamdani, elected last November on a left-wing program and in direct opposition to Donald Trump, officially became mayor of New York on Thursday, where many challenges await him.
During a brief ceremony organized in a historic subway station in Manhattan, the 34-year-old elected official took the oath before Letitia James, Democratic prosecutor of the State of New York and personal enemy of the American president, whom she had convicted of fraud in 2024.
The city’s first Muslim mayor, he swore on a copy of the Koran held by his wife, the artist Rama Duwaji, an edition that belonged to an intellectual figure from Harlem, Arturo Schomburg, a pioneering writer and historian of the history of black Americans, who died in 1938.
“This is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime,” he said.
Very concerned with symbols, Zohran Madmani justified the choice of a prestigious and disused station – “Old City”, with elegant vaults and colorful glass windows dating from 1904 – by the fact that in his eyes it embodied “a city which dared to be both beautiful” and “capable of transforming the lives of the working classes”.
He was inducted shortly after midnight, as thousands of people celebrated the New Year in Times Square.
This small inauguration ceremony will be followed by another Thursday at midday at city hall, chaired by two champions of the American left, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Tens of thousands of people are expected on this occasion for a major “neighborhood party”, with broadcasts on giant screens, music and performances along Broadway.
Elected on a program of frank opposition to the American president, particularly on the economy and immigration, Zohran Mamdani has since gone to the White House for a surprisingly warm exchange between the two men, who were full of pleasantries.
Fight against the high cost of living
Not sure that Donald Trump has definitively abandoned his threats, made during the campaign, to send the National Guard to New York or to cut federal subsidies to the city.
“If tomorrow Stephen Miller (close advisor to Donald Trump) or JD Vance (…) suggest to the president to send more immigration police to New York, he will do it,” said Lincoln Mitchell, professor of political science at Columbia University, to AFP.
In addition, the voters of the new mayor “really expect” that the latter will firmly oppose the White House.
A young local elected official from the borough of Queens without much political experience, Zohran Mamdani will have his work cut out to implement his campaign promises, which have aroused great expectations among the population.
A few months before important congressional elections (“midterms”), its successes and failures will also be scrutinized by the Democratic camp, which is still often looking for inspiration to oppose Donald Trump.
Member of the small formation of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the native of Uganda who naturalized American in 2018 built most of his program on the cost of living, which has become prohibitive for some of the 8.5 million inhabitants of New York, in particular housing.
His predecessor Eric Adams, whose record was marred by accusations of corruption, worked to complicate a flagship measure, the freezing of rents for more than a million apartments, by appointing or reappointing several close friends to the committee responsible for deciding on it.
The terms of Zohran Mamdani’s other promises – construction of 200,000 affordable housing units, childcare accessible to all, low-cost public supermarkets, free buses – are not yet known. But he will have to make announcements without delay to launch them.
Long-time supporter of the Palestinian cause, extremely critical of Israel’s policy, the elected official finally knows he is closely monitored on the question of the defense of the Jewish community, against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in New York as elsewhere in the United States.
Since his election, one of his recruits resigned after the revelation of anti-Semitic tweets that she had published in her youth.
