New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to implement his socialist agenda on January 1.
“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it,” Mamdani said, adding, “Because no matter what you eat, how you pray or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share, New Yorkers.”
He went on to vow to increase the government. “To 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 Yorker’s lives,” Mamdani said.
“I was elected as a Democratic socialist, and I will govern as a Democratic socialist,” he went on to declare. Mamdani drew upon ideas from Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), stating, “As the great Senator from Vermont once said, ‘What’s radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.'”
Mamdani’s first executive order revoked those issued by former Mayor Eric Adams on or after September 26, 2024. The second executive order established several deputy mayors, including one for housing and planning, economic justice, operations, and health and human services.
The democratic socialist was the first New York City mayor to be sworn in on a Quran. According to The New York Times, three Qurans were used.
“It’s a highly symbolic choice because we’re about to have a Muslim mayor swearing in using the Quran but also a mayor who was born on the African continent, in Uganda,” Hiba Abid, a library curator from which one of the Qurans is housed, said. “It really brings together here elements of faith, identity and New York history.”
