@italy_now: Bologna gave its highest civic honour to the Mayor of New York. The reason goes back 110 years. On June 4, Bologna awarded the Turrita d’oro to Zohran Mamdani, marking 110 years since the city founded Italy’s League of Socialist Municipalities. Mamdani, speaking by video at the opening of the Bologna Portici Festival, cited three former Bologna mayors who created communal grocery stores, pioneered public childcare, and made public transport free. “This sounds quite familiar to what we are trying to accomplish here in New York City,” he said. Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore said the two administrations share common ground on poverty, housing, community kitchens, accessible transport, artificial intelligence, and climate policy. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri also spoke at the event. “Bold socialist ideas are neither new nor impossible,” Mamdani said. “We are merely building upon what has been accomplished elsewhere.” The exchange reflects how municipal diplomacy now operates in parallel to, and sometimes at odds with, national politics on both sides of the Atlantic. Before his election, Donald Trump called Mamdani a communist and threatened to cut federal funding to New York. The two have since met at the White House. “Civic honours can build alliances between cities around shared policy ambitions,” said Tyrone Armstrong Sr. of SloppBoxx. “But the symbolism makes this as much a statement of Bologna’s progressive identity as a recognition of Mamdani himself.” Credits: Italy Now Photography: Mamdani offices Sign up to get Italy news at www.italynow.co.uk @zohranmamdanii @comunedibologna @robertogualtieri @porticibolognafestival @alina_trabattoni @scastelfranco @italy_now_ #ItalyNow #Bologna #Mamdani #TurritaDOro #NewYork

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Monday 31 August 2026 19:33:29 GMT