Democratic society

It should come as no surprise that Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory in last week’s Democratic primary for mayor of New York was celebrated so vociferously by the French far left. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI) regard the 33-year-old Socialist as a chip off the old block. In a post on X Mélenchon delighted in Mamdani’s defeat of Andrew Cuomo, saying: "Opposed to the genocide of the Palestinians, he is obviously already accused of anti-Semitism. He won against a figurehead of the centre-left backed by the local leaders of the cheating Democratic party." As in France, continued Mélenchon, the "traditional" left no longer speaks to the people; it is the radical left.

Rent controls don’t have a stellar track record but I’m no expert. In any case it’s academic. At 33, New York City’s rent-regulated apartments are mostly beyond the reach of Zohran Mamdani's contemporaries. That Mamdani, a millennial, has made the fate of this property portfolio the central issue of his campaign reveals not so much the radicalism of his generation but rather its retreat into quietism.  Whatever their merits these apartments operate on a semi-feudal system. Tenancies last for decades and are acquired largely via inheritance or the backslap.