Across Europe, the left searches for its next ‘Mamdani’ : NPR

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

According to NPR News, it’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. My name is Sacha Pfeiffer. In the Oval Office on Friday, President Trump gave a surprisingly friendly welcome to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. After weeks of mutual attacks, they showered each other with praise once face to face.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think you will hopefully have a very good mayor. And the better he does, the happier I am.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I enjoyed meeting with the president and, as he said, it was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, New York City, and the need to provide affordability to New Yorkers.

PFEIFFER: Mamdani’s surprising victory made headlines not only in New York and the United States, but also abroad. In Europe, many left-wing politicians feel inspired by his victory and are studying his campaign to try to copy his success. NPR’s Fatima Al-Kassab reports from London.

FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: These may have been local elections in a foreign city, but whatever your language in Europe, they made national news.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: (Non-English language spoken) Zohran Mamdani (non-English language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #2: Zohran Mamdani (non-English language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #3: Zohran Mamdani (non-English language spoken).

AL-KASSAB: For progressives in Europe, this was more than just news. It was a source of inspiration, even a case study. Claire Lejeune is an MP for the French left-wing party La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, which sent members to New York to study Mamdani’s winning methods during the election campaign.

CLAIRE LEJEUNE: Zohran Mamdani’s victory is a glimmer of hope. His message resonates not only in the United States, but also here in France.

AL-KASSAB: Here in the UK, the echoes have reached the seaside town of Brighton and the mayoral race. On a campaign leaflet for the local Green Party candidate there are two faces: that of the candidate and that of the elected mayor of New York. Zack Polanski is the national leader of the Green Party and spoke to NPR in London.

ZACK POLANSKI: A right-wing newspaper recently called me a happy warrior, and I thought that was such an astonishing description of Zohran, actually.

AL-KASSAB: Newspapers here, which often describe Polanski as young and charismatic, now also refer to him as the British Mamdani. He helped the Green Party double its membership and perform much better in the polls, rivaling major establishment parties such as Labor and the Conservatives. As New York City’s mayor-elect, Polanski has become something of a social media star. Here’s a video of him on X leading tax-the-rich chants at a hip-hop concert.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: [inaudible] .

POLANSKI: When I say tax them, you say rich. Tax the…

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Rich.

POLANSKI: Tax the…

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Rich.

POLANSKI: Make some noise.

(APPLAUSE)

AL-KASSAB: The papers here may be talking about Zack Polanski’s Z-factor, but he says it’s about more than just social media savvy.

POLANSKI: I think a lot of times, with me and Zohran, I see particularly right-wing media trying to put us in the box of, oh, they’re just really good at TikTok, or they’re – you know, they’re happy people who can connect with the audience. Of course, I will accept all these compliments. But actually, I think the message is more important than all that.

AL-KASSAB: That message, he says, is fundamentally the same whether it’s addressed to voters in New York or cities in England.

POLANSKI: Cut bills, tax billionaires. And for Zohran, it’s about affordable rent, universal child care, and the message it ultimately sends about the inequalities that exist in New York. I want to take this whole message and spread it across an entire country.

AL-KASSAB: Polanski says his video team is meeting with Mamdani videographers to get some advice. They are not alone. In France, Claire Lejeune of the left-wing France Unbowed party says what she learned from Mamdani’s victory is that when he bucked the trend and didn’t move to the center, it worked.

LEJEUNE: Not by fundamentally compromising with the neoliberal establishment, but by standing firm, by standing firm on its ideas, by not giving up on defending the Palestinian people, by not giving up on radical and transformative politics.

AL-KASSAB: In Germany, the democratic socialist party Die Linke has also been in contact with the Mamdani team.

HEIDI REICHINNEK: I mean, what better way to learn from each other and celebrate together?

AL-KASSAB: This is leader Heidi Reichinnek, who told me that her political movement will emulate the Mamdani campaign in the upcoming elections in Germany.

REICHINNEK: Going door to door, talking to people, explaining to them that we can change something for the better, that we can take on the billionaires, the right-wing extremists and win.

AL-KASSAB: Back here in the UK, Green Party leader Polanski looks to the future, sees opportunity and hopes the Z factor will help him.

POLANSKI: I can’t tell you whether we’re going to fall to the right and toward fascism or whether we’re going to move to the left, toward a more progressive politics that cares about people and the planet. I obviously hope it’s the latter, and I intend to do everything I can to make sure it’s the latter.

AL-KASSAB: The next British election is four years away, but there are others in Europe before then and, for now, new hope on the left, thanks to Mamdani’s surprising success. Fatima Al-Kassab, NPR News, London.

Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit the terms of use and permissions pages on our website at www.npr.org for more information.

The accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. The text of the transcript may be edited to correct errors or match updates to the audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio recording.