Mamdani’s win reshapes European politics:Left-wing parties make affordable housing, lower rents their campaign issue; victory secured in Berlin

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York is now having an impact on politics in Europe. Like Mamdani, European leaders are focusing on expensive rents, rising inflation and the cost of living for ordinary people. The most interesting case is Berlin, Germany. Elif Eralp won the election there by making expensive housing a key issue. German media have now started calling Eralp the ‘Mamdani of Berlin’. Meanwhile, left-wing leaders in France, Spain and the Netherlands are also keeping an eye on Mamdani’s politics. It is therefore being suggested that Mamdani has given Europe’s left a new way to contest elections. 1. Germany: Promised affordable housing and won the most seats If any European leader can be most directly linked to Mamdani, it is Elif Eralp. Eralp, 45, is a lawyer from a Turkish-origin family. Her parents came to Germany after Turkey’s 1980 military coup. Eralp joined The Left in 2017. The biggest issue for her party in last month’s election was the high cost of living and high rents. Eralp demanded that around 2.2 lakh homes owned by private companies in Berlin be brought under public control. The Left benefited from this. It received around 25.7% of the vote in the election and emerged as the largest party. It will now have to form a coalition with other parties to establish a government. 2. Britain: Jack Polanski learned from Mamdani’s campaign team Jack Polanski is the person most often compared with Mamdani in Britain. He is the leader of the Green Party, which has primarily focused on environmental and climate issues. However, Polanski has broadened the party’s range of issues. Polanski links issues such as inflation, unaffordable housing, rising rents, the cost of everyday living and higher taxes on the wealthy to environmental politics. Polanski calls this ‘eco-populism’. Like Mamdani, Polanski is also making social media an important means of conducting politics. Polanski said his video team was taking tips from Mamdani’s video-making team. Interestingly, Polanski is currently contesting the Holborn seat in London. A by-election is being held there on 8 October after former Prime Minister Keir Starmer stepped down as an MP. In the election held two years ago, the Green Party received just 10% of the vote there. Some polls have estimated that the Greens could receive 40% of the vote this time. 3. Spain: 87-year-old woman evicted from her home, government falls Expensive housing and rising rents have become a major political issue in Spain. Last month, 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from the home where she had lived for 70 years in Madrid. Protests then broke out across the country. The case became a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis. The issue escalated to such an extent that pressure mounted on the government to tackle the housing crisis. After the government’s housing proposal was rejected in Parliament, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on 29 November that an early general election would be held. So in Spain too, housing and rent are no longer just social issues. They have become direct issues in electoral politics. 4. France: Promise to build 60,000 affordable homes in Paris Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayor of the French capital Paris, is associated with the Socialist Party. He was elected mayor this year. Expensive housing and rising rents are major issues in his politics. Grégoire has called for more affordable homes to be built in Paris, vacant properties to be put to use for people and greater rent controls. His administration aims to build 60,000 new affordable homes. Even before Mamdani’s victory, some left-wing French leaders had spoken about learning from his campaign. As in Britain, attention was focused here too on Mamdani’s electoral style and his approach of delivering direct messages. 5. Netherlands: Made the housing shortage an election issue, became the largest party In the Netherlands, housing and rents had already become central issues in electoral politics before Mamdani’s victory. In the 2025 national election, D66 leader Rob Jetten made the housing crisis a major election issue. At the time, the country was short of around 4 lakh homes. Buying a home had become expensive and rents were rising steadily. Millions of people were therefore facing a question: before asking when the government would bring inflation down, when would they get a home? Jetten’s party, D66, proposed building 1 lakh new homes every year and developing 10 new townships. The proposal also paid off in the election. The party rose from nine seats in 2023 to 26 seats in 2025, becoming one of the largest parties. In other words, affordable homes and lower rents had already become a major political issue in Europe in the Netherlands before Mamdani’s victory. Mamdani’s win brought the debate further into the spotlight. ​