In the general assembly’s shadow, Mamdani looks to bolster international left

Por Chris Sommerfeldt and Joe Anuta — POLITICO – TOP Stories

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, the latest engagement showcasing Mamdani’s desire to build bridges with like-minded politicians outside the U.S.

The expected meeting with Støre, a member of Norway’s left-leaning Labour Party, comes after Mamdani held private audiences over the weekend with mayors from Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and France. All five of those mayors are fellow leftists who share many of Mamdani’s policy goals and, bolstered by his election last year, are having a collective moment on the world stage.

Mamdani and Støre, who are expected to visit a local public school together, will focus their discussion on artificial intelligence and how it’s making its way into classrooms, said Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the mayor. Under Støre, Norway has instituted a near-total ban on AI in elementary schools, and Mamdani’s administration — which recently enacted a similar directive — sees the prime minister’s model as a potential inspiration.

“Mayor Mamdani and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will come together to participate in a roundtable with students to discuss New York City’s artificial intelligence moratorium for public school students in 2-K through 8th grade,” Pekec said in a statement to POLITICO. “Mayor Mamdani looks forward to learning from the comparable approach Norway has taken in its school system nationwide.”

Given Mamdani’s already global renown and social media reach, the annual gathering of diplomats represents a significant opportunity for the 34-year-old to bolster his brand and meet with fellow leftists like Støre. But the general assembly also comes amid heightened international and domestic tensions — and carries the risk of highlighting a confluence of failed campaign promises to Mamdani’s supporters at home.

Daily demonstrations near U.N. headquarters are expected, and many protesters plan to take aim at Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s military campaign in Gaza and southern Lebanon and Israeli encroachment into Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Not only has Mamdani already walked back his campaign pledge to arrest the Middle Eastern leader, much to the chagrin of his base, but the mayor’s police department will be running crowd control with a controversial NYPD unit waiting in the wings — a unit Mamdani promised to ban on the stump last year but has instead left intact.

As for his own role, Mamdani said last week he will stay far away from this week’s protests, which are expected to hit a fever pitch Thursday, when Netanyahu is scheduled to address the general assembly. And in contrast to his back-to-back confabs with ideological allies, Mamdani is also set to sit down Monday with President Donald Trump at Gracie Mansion for a conversation about “issues affecting New York City,” a meeting that could bring about tensions as it comes ahead of this week’s fraught UN session.

Every recent New York City mayor has fancied themselves an international diplomat of sorts.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg went on official visits to Greece, Turkey and Afghanistan early in his first term. His successor, Bill de Blasio, visited Italy, Germany, France and Israel on official junkets. Eric Adams took international relations — to use that term generously — to the extreme. Aside from the now-defunct criminal bribery case against him involving Turkish officials, New York City taxpayers footed the bill for several loosely justified trips abroad. And a mysterious jaunt to Qatar — which Adams funded himself but claimed was for official city business — didn’t make sense at all.

Mamdani has yet to leave the country since being sworn in, but he’s already demonstrated his relevance on the world stage.

Far-flung candidates have appeared to borrow from the aesthetics of his campaign. Political organizations in Europe are studying the canvassing operation that propelled him to victory. And at home and abroad, his harsh criticism of Israel has endeared him to a growing portion of the Democratic Party who share many of his views on the subject and are planning to make the war against Hamas in Gaza a central issue of this week’s U.N. assembly.

Several of Mamdani’s closest advisers have also taken an interest in establishing ties with left-leaning politicians overseas. As it relates to Norway in particular, Andrew Bard Epstein, Mamdani’s 2025 campaign communications chief, traveled to the Scandinavian country this past spring to deliver a speech at a conference. He’s expected to go back there this fall for another speaking engagement.

“Working people face the same challenges everywhere — inequality, affordability, runaway technology controlled by the few at the expense of the many,” Bard Epstein said ahead of Mamdani’s meeting with Norway’s prime minister. “Cities and countries have to learn from each other and model the kind of international cooperation that’s under threat right now.”

As previously reported by POLITICO, Morris Katz, the mayor’s chief campaign strategist, met with lawmakers in the United Kingdom earlier this year to discuss replicating the Mamdani phenomenon across the pond. And leaders of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani’s self-described “political home,” have been working with fellow leftists in Spain, Sweden and Germany.

Mamdani’s office confirmed he will meet with other international heads of state besides Støre in connection with this week’s UN gathering, but would not immediately share details about the other sit-downs. According to foreign media reports, Mamdani’s schedule this week will include meetings with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, both of whom hail from leftist parties in their respective nations.

In his meetings with fellow mayors over the weekend, Mamdani struck a convivial tone.

On Sunday, Mamdani joined Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada to hand out flyers to delivery workers informing them of their rights under local labor laws. Mamdani’s office said they embarked on the pamphleting mission because they share a commitment to expand labor rights in their respective cities.

“At a time of division and retreat, our cities are choosing cooperation,” Mamdani said in a statement about his meetings with Brugada and the other mayors.

Mamdani’s office said his meetings with the four other mayors focused on finding solutions to housing, climate and migration issues. The meetings took place as part of Urban20, a conference that brings together mayors from around the globe.

Yet despite Mamdani’s foray into international cross pollination, political perils abound. For the man who repeatedly pledged to arrest Netanyahu on an International Criminal Court war crimes warrant and encouraged New Yorkers just weeks ago to protest the Israeli leader, the dynamics remain complicated at home.

Prominent members of New York City’s Jewish community recently urged Mamdani to tone down his rhetoric after he aired a video in July that they feared would exacerbate antisemitism and the already outsized rash of hate crimes against Jews in the city.

The July video, which opened with Mamdani calling Netanyahu a war criminal, also delivered some tough news to the mayor’s most ardent supporters, though both Mamdani and anyone else with a rudimentary understanding of international law long knew it: He does not have any authority to collar Netanyahu. In fact, the mayor will be doing quite the opposite. Mamdani’s police department will be providing the Israeli leader with a security detail just like all prominent heads of state receive when they come to Midtown for the annual gathering.

“Throughout the week, our officers will secure hundreds of motorcades as heads of state, foreign ministers and other senior officials move between the U.N., hotels, meetings and events across New York City,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a security briefing last week. “We will also deploy resources to those venues throughout the city, while working especially closely with the Secret Service to support protection for the president of the United States and other heads of state.”

For many in Mamdani’s base disappointed with his about-face on Netanyahu, protesting near U.N. Headquarters could add insult to injury.

The NYPD has already received 55 permit applications for demonstrations in the area, with Israel being a prime target. Policing those events already puts Mamdani in a precarious political position, as any outsized police response would be looked upon poorly by his supporters.

That goes doubly should the Strategic Response Group get involved. The SRG, as it is known, is a specialized NYPD unit deployed for counterterrorism responses and to make arrests at large-scale protests.

On the campaign trail, Mamdani pledged to disband the unit owing to several high-profile clashes with protesters — one of which led to a legal settlement placing guardrails over how the NYPD can deploy force on demonstrators. But since taking office, he has deferred to his police commissioner, who has made no move at dissolution.

Molly Reinmann contributed reporting

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories