SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
From NPR News, it's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Sacha Pfeiffer. In the Oval Office on Friday, President Trump had a surprisingly friendly welcome for New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. After weeks of attacking one another, they showered each other with praise once they were face to face.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think you're going to have hopefully a really great mayor. And the better he does, the happier I am.
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I appreciated the meeting with the president, and as he said, it was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.
PFEIFFER: Mamdani's startling come-from-behind win made headlines not just in New York and across the United States, but abroad. In Europe, many left-wing politicians feel inspired by his victory, and they're studying his campaign to try to copy his success. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reports from London.
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: It may have been a local election in a foreign city, but whatever your language in Europe, it made the national news.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: (Non-English language spoken) Zohran Mamdani (non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Zohran Mamdani (non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: Zohran Mamdani (non-English language spoken).
AL-KASSAB: For progressives in Europe, it was more than news. It was an inspiration, even a case study. Claire Lejeune is a member of Parliament from France's left-wing, La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, party, which sent members to New York to study Mamdani's winning ways on the campaign trail.
CLAIRE LEJEUNE: The victory of Zohran Mamdani is a beacon of hope. Its message echoes not only in the U.S., but also for us in France.
AL-KASSAB: Here in the U.K., the echoes reached all the way to the seaside town of Brighton and the race for mayor there. On a campaign leaflet for the local Green Party candidate are two faces - that of the candidate and of New York City's mayor-elect. Zack Polanski is the national leader of the Green Party and spoke with NPR in London.
ZACK POLANSKI: A right-wing newspaper recently called me a joyful warrior, and I thought, that's such an amazing description of Zohran, actually.
AL-KASSAB: The newspapers here, who often describe Polanski as young and charismatic, now also label him the British Mamdani. He has helped the Green Party double its membership and do much better in the polls, rivaling big establishment parties such as Labour and the Conservatives. Like the New York mayor-elect, Polanski has become a bit of a social media star. Here's a video of him on X leading chants of tax the rich at a hip-hop concert.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: [inaudible] .
POLANSKI: When I say tax the, you say rich. Tax the...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Rich.
POLANSKI: Tax the...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Rich.
POLANSKI: Make some noise.
(CHEERING)
AL-KASSAB: Newspapers here may talk about Zack Polanski's Z-factor, but he says there's more to it than being social media savvy.
POLANSKI: I think, very often, both with me and Zohran, I see particularly right-wing media try and put us in the box of, oh, they're just very good at TikTok, or they're - you know, they're happy people who can connect with the public. Sure, I'll take all of those compliments. But actually, I think more important than any of that is the message.
AL-KASSAB: That message, he says, is at its heart the same, whether to voters in New York City or in towns and cities across England.
POLANSKI: Lowering bills, taxing billionaires. And for Zohran, it's about affordable rent, universal child care and the message that he's sending ultimately about the inequality that exists in New York. I want to take that whole message and spread it across an entire country.
AL-KASSAB: Polanski says his video team are meeting Mamdani's videographers to pick up some tips. They're not alone. In France, Claire Lejeune from France's leftist France Unbowed says that what she learned from Mamdani's win is that when he bucked the trend and didn't move to the center, it worked.
LEJEUNE: Not by compromising basically with neoliberal establishment, but by standing his ground, standing his ground on his ideas, not giving up on defending the Palestinian people, not giving up on a set of radical and transformative politics.
AL-KASSAB: In Germany, the Democratic socialist Die Linke party has also been in touch with the Mamdani team.
HEIDI REICHINNEK: I mean, what better way to learn from each other and celebrate together?
AL-KASSAB: That's leader Heidi Reichinnek, who told me her political movement was going to emulate the Mamdani campaign in upcoming elections in Germany.
REICHINNEK: Going from door to door, talking to people, explaining to them that we can change something for the better, that we can face the billionaires, the right-wing extremists, and win.
AL-KASSAB: Back here in the U.K., Green Party leader Polanski looks ahead and sees opportunity and hopes the Z factor will help.
POLANSKI: I can't tell you whether we're going to fall to the right and to fascism or whether we're going to go to the left, to a more progressive politics that cares about people and planet. I'm obviously hoping it's the latter, and I intend to do everything I can to make sure it's the latter.
AL-KASSAB: The next British elections are four years away, but there are others in Europe before that and, for now, a new hope on the left, thanks to Mamdani's surprising success. Fatima Al-Kassab, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.