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As New York City<\/a> plays host to nearly 130 world leaders gathered for the United Nations<\/a> General Assembly, progressive Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> is making a point of meeting<\/a> with a number of international politicians who share his commitment to \u201cbuilding an economy for the many”\u2014the official theme of a Wednesday morning breakfast he held at Gracie Mansion, where Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez was a key guest. <\/p>\n The event gave the two leaders an opportunity to discuss, as the prime minister said on social media<\/a>, “more jobs, better wages, less inequality<\/a>.” <\/p>\n “Social justice<\/a> is not the enemy of economic growth,” he said. <\/p>\n S\u00e1nchez spoke to a group of assembled leaders\u2014including Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, a fierce critic of government inaction on the climate emergency<\/a> and inequality<\/a>, and socialist European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/a>\u2014about Spain’s economic policies, such as a 66% increase<\/a> in the national minimum wage<\/a> over the past eight years. <\/p>\n \u201cSpain is showing that another economic model is possible, and New York is demonstrating that the same ambition can transform our cities,” said<\/a> S\u00e1nchez, who represents the Spanish Socialist Workers<\/a>‘ Party. “That is why the powerful fear us, because every day we show that there is another possible path and that it works.”<\/p>\n \u201cWe were told that if you want growth, you have to accept inequality. That the workers have to make sacrifices. That if you want to be competitive, you have to have low wages and bad public services. I never believed it,” S\u00e1nchez added. “Spain<\/a> has shown that it was not true. We have raised the [Spanish minimum income] by 66%. We were told it would destroy jobs, but we have more workers than ever. One in every two jobs created in Europe are Spanish. We were told that with clean energy we would be less competitive. Now we have 60% and the cheapest energy. They always tell us that [these policies] are not going to work. The reality is that they do work for ordinary people.”<\/p>\n The policies of S\u00e1nchez and Mamdani have angered right-wing<\/a> leaders, including President Donald Trump<\/a>. The president threatened<\/a> Spain with a trade<\/a> embargo earlier this year when S\u00e1nchez refused to allow US war planes to refuel at Spanish military bases as the US and Israel waged war on Iran.<\/p>\n Administration officials also condemned<\/a> S\u00e1nchez’s pro-immigration stance in July when migrants<\/a> from Africa<\/a> entered the self-governing Spanish city of Ceuta. The prime minister offered<\/a> hundreds of thousands of migrants a chance at permanent legal residency in Spain earlier this year, contrasting with Trump’s violent mass deportation campaign.<\/p>\n “Migration has made Spain stronger,” said S\u00e1nchez on Wednesday. “Migration makes us a better country. No question.”<\/p>\n Without mentioning Trump by name, he added: “This matters because there are politicians on both sides of the Atlantic trying to convince working people that their problem is another working person\u2014someone born somewhere else, someone who earns even less than they do. It is one of the oldest political tricks in history: Make people look sideways so they never look up.”<\/p>\n While appearing to admire<\/a> the charismatic and ultrapopular Mamdani\u2014whose 69% approval rating<\/a> among his constituents contrasts sharply with the 29% of American<\/a>s<\/a> who currently support the president\u2014Trump has railed against recent electoral victories of politicians who share Mamdani’s commitment to universal, government-funded social services, raising taxes on billionaires, and ensuring life is affordable for working people. <\/p>\n In June, he called<\/a> democratic socialists like Mamdani “the most serious threat to our country since its existence,” and during Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, the candidate confronted<\/a> border czar Tom Homan over Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. <\/p>\n At the Wednesday morning event, where Mamdani praised S\u00e1nchez for sending a message through his minimum wage policy that “work matters… dignity matters,” the mayor said that working together, the two leaders and other progressives<\/a> in power can build “a better world, bringing the movement for equality and justice to more distant horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n Costa, who served as the prime minister of Portugal, added on social media that “in an interdependent world, we need coordinated solutions to global and local challenges.”<\/p>\n “That is why we must defend international law<\/a> and multilateral institutions like the UN,” said Costa. “And that is why we must put the well-being of our citizens at the center of our policies.”<\/p>\n \u201cIt is truly a privilege to be able to learn from one another, emulate each other’s successes, and develop strategies that imitate the great progress those in this room have achieved,” said<\/a> Mamdani at the event. <\/p>\n The mayor has also met with progressive mayors from Barcelona<\/a>, Paris, Rome, Mexico City, and other cities to discuss housing, migration, and climate policies. On Tuesday, he visited a New York City public school with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re, and the two leaders discussed<\/a> limiting artificial intelligence<\/a> in education. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n