The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, met today with his counterpart from New York, Zohran Mamdani, an emerging figure from the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party in the United States. The PSC councilor is the first Spanish authority to do so, just a few days before the scheduled meeting with the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who will travel next week to the city to participate in the United Nations General Assembly.
Collboni has begun an institutional trip to participate in the Urban20 (U20) mayors’ summit, which is taking place in New York until Monday to address issues such as affordable housing, homelessness, climate action, and the protection of immigrant communities.
From this forum will emerge a document of conclusions and proposals that the mayors will deliver to their respective heads of government and state ahead of the next meeting of the G20 leaders, on December 14 and 15 in Miami.
Antithesis of Donald Trump
Collboni met with Mamdani this afternoon and they shared “visions and projects of their respective cities.” Mayor of New York since last January 1 and the first Muslim person to hold this office, Mamdani represents the political antithesis of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and does not hesitate to define himself as a “socialist,” a term denigrated for many years in the North American country.
Last April, on the occasion of the 12th edition of Bloomberg CityLab, Collboni met in Madrid with Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London. The Labour leader praised the policies of the Barcelona city government as “a beacon to emulate.” The councilor of the Catalan capital will attend tomorrow the U20 session “Housing, affordability and the right to stay.”
Sánchez and Mamdani will meet for the first time next Wednesday during the Prime Minister’s trip to the USA. The New York mayor could not attend the progressive forum promoted by the secretary general of the PSOE in April in Barcelona, although he did participate via video.
