New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, at inauguration, vows to govern ‘audaciously’

NEW YORK – In his first major speech as New York mayor

at his inauguration

on Jan 1, Mr Zohran Mamdani addressed the city of 8.5 million people in all its striving, struggling and diversity.

“I stand alongside you,” Mr Mamdani said outside City Hall to a packed, freezing audience.

“The tens of thousands of you gathered here in Lower Manhattan, armed against the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope.

“I stand alongside countless more New Yorkers watching from cramped kitchens in Flushing and barber shops in East New York, from cellphones propped against the dashboards of parked taxicabs at LaGuardia, hospitals in Mott Haven and libraries in El Barrio that have too long known only neglect.”

Mr Mamdani – a democratic socialist whose astonishing year-long rise from the obscurity of the State Assembly’s backbench to the helm of the nation’s largest city made many more moderate and centrist New Yorkers nervous – sought to reassure his critics, too.

To those “who view this administration with distrust or disdain”, Mr Mamdani said: “I promise you this. If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor. Regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, I will celebrate with you, mourn alongside you, and never, not for a second, hide from you.”

Nevertheless, Mr Mamdani, who spent months reassuring civic and business leaders of his pragmatism, vowed: “I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist.”

Lest there be any doubt what that meant, Mr Mamdani doubled down: “Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously,” he said. “Those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives.”

The star-studded ceremony at City Hall featured two avatars of the progressive wing of American politics who helped propel Mr Mamdani to the mayoralty: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who delivered opening remarks; and Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders, who administered the oath of office.

The swearing-in was accompanied by an “inauguration block party” along seven blocks of lower Broadway, which drew tens of thousands despite a sub-zero wind chill.

The festivities followed a smaller, private swearing-in that was held just after midnight in a shuttered subway station.

Mr Mamdani’s ascension sets several precedents. Born 34 years ago in Uganda, he is New York’s youngest mayor in more than a century. He is the

first Muslim mayor

– he took the oath of office with his hand on a Quran – the first South Asian, and the first mayor born in Africa. A democratic socialist, he is perhaps New York’s furthest-left mayor since Mr Fiorello La Guardia.

He won the election in November by marshalling an army of 100,000 mostly youthful canvassers drawn by his charisma and mastery of digital campaigning, and by captivating voters – from working-class neighbourhoods and affluent liberal strongholds alike – with an ambitious agenda to tame the runaway cost of living in the city, featuring promises of free childcare, free buses and a partial rent freeze.

The messaging boiled down to a single theme, affordability, which became a national buzzword. Along the way, he toppled a New York political dynasty, handily defeating former governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, and then again in the general election.

He overcame resistance from moderate Democratic leaders locally and nationwide, who worried that his election would invite interference from President Donald Trump and could cost the party its shot at retaking Congress, and from supporters of Israel alarmed by his harsh criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Mr Mamdani on Jan 1 reminded his audience that there will be many people watching his mayoralty who “want to know if the left can govern”.

“They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved,” he continued. “They want to know if it is right to hope again. So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world.”

The remark was ostensibly directed at people who are hoping Mr Mamdani’s embrace of democratic-socialist governance will succeed.

But it was also a message to Republican leaders across the country who may be rooting for Mr Mamdani to fail. They have already held him up as the new face of the Democratic Party, one who they say is pushing the party further to the left and further out of touch with the beliefs of average Americans. NYTIMES