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The Alliance Party of New Zealand has welcomed the significant election victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City, seeing it as a powerful symbol of a growing public appetite for genuine change.

Alliance Party President Victor Billot says the win in New York is a rejection of the status-quo politics that has failed to deliver for ordinary people.

He says in order to defeat the surge of the far-right, the political left needs to stand up for its key principles rather than apologizing for them.

“Zohran Mamdani ran on a left-wing platform that resonates strongly with the Alliance’s core principles: a commitment to affordable housing, tax reform to help the working-class majority, keeping our public assets, and fighting for climate justice.”

“This is about real change, not just tweaking the system,” says Mr. Billot. 

“People, whether in New York City or in New Zealand, are tired of establishment parties that spend their time telling the majority to suck it up while the core problems of the cost of living, access to health care and housing, and the climate crisis get worse.”

Mr. Billot says Mamdani’s success proves that bold, democratic socialist ideas, like fully-funded public services, wealth taxes, and putting people before profit, can win.

“As Zohran Mamdani says, democracies the world over have for too long been dominated by those who believe they are born to rule, not in the calloused hands of a factory or warehouse worker, the heat blistered hands of a glassy or the grease burnt arms of the line cook, or even the steady and precise hands of the nurse, the doctor, the surgeon. A change will come, when the ordinary people who do the work that makes society run will in turn run society.”

Mr Billot says the Alliance Party is committed to building that same grassroots movement here in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

“We offer a clear political home for those who believe in public ownership, a living wage for all, and a just transition to a sustainable future. This victory in New York gives us one more reason to be hopeful.”