Fact check: Would Zohran Mamdani's policies be 'normal' in Europe?

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Fact check: Would Zohran Mamdani's policies be 'normal' in Europe?   Far-left or mainstream, a utopic vision or normal; where would incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s platform sit if it were transported to Europe?   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/11/12/fact-check-would-zohran-mamdanis-policies-be-normal-in-europe  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Would Zoran Mamdani's policies be normal in Europe?

00:07Following Zoran Mamdani's victory in the New York mayoral election,

00:11several left-wing European politicians celebrated his victory

00:15as a blueprint for what could be possible for their own agendas.

00:18As the left in France, Germany and other countries commended Mamdani's proposed plans

00:23to bring in a rent freeze, free buses and universal childcare,

00:27other online users suggested that his platform wouldn't be seen as particularly radical in Europe.

00:33In fact, they said that many of his policies already exist in some form

00:37under European centrist and centre-right governments.

00:40To see whether Mamdani's programme would be seen as normal in the Old Continent,

00:44we took some of his main policy points and compared them to what exists in certain European countries.

00:50In Berlin, for example, residents are protected by a law that caps rents

00:54for newly rented flats to 10% above the local comparative rent,

00:58while a law in Paris imposes limits on the price of rent in over-rented areas.

01:03Protections are common in Europe, but Mamdani's freeze policy goes further than some European cities.

01:09He's also pushed for free childcare for all children in New York City from six weeks to five years old.

01:16In much of Europe, subsidised childcare is already the standard and in some cases it's free.

01:22In Denmark, for example, every child from around six months old has a legal right to a publicly subsidised childcare place,

01:29with municipalities capping parental fees at about 25% of total costs.

01:35As for free public transport, this is rare in Europe.

01:38Luxembourg has free public transport for visitors and residents alike,

01:43and Malta has it for residents only, but otherwise only a handful of European cities have tried it,

01:49so Mamdani's policy would indeed be fairly radical here too.

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