This is not for the lukewarm, go and fight against the left-handed”. The fanfare is from the winner of the Argentine primaries, the far-right Javier Milei. He pronounced it in October 2022 at a Vox rally in Madrid. Meaning of warm: temperate, neither cold nor hot. All over the planet, from Arctic Norway to Tierra del Fuego, lukewarm politicians, those who avoid extremes, are perplexed by the rise of an uncomplexed ultra-right – “decontracted”, according to an Argentine chronicler – that promotes simultaneous baths of cold and heat , a combination that we would call impossible if it were not for the fact that political drift has widened the borders of the possible to unsuspected limits. Hot and cold at the same time? Of course, demagogy has no limits. The same Milei who advocates the disappearance of the State is the one who demands that the State invade the intimate sphere of people and prohibit women from having abortions. An example that you can vote ultraliberal and antiliberal with the same ballot. This is not for the lukewarm.
The sudden appearance of La Libertad Avanza in Argentina and the irruption of Vox as a relevant party in Spain have in common, among other factors, that they occur four decades after the respective dictatorships succumbed. In Germany, France or Italy, the emergence of the ultras has taken more time, although the result is similar. Radical language and outburst have been better adapted to the new polarized society of media bubbles than moderate tone and nuance. The surly verb of the Milei on duty sells better than the rhetoric of focused politicians, especially if they, as is the case of the Argentines, have been manifestly incapable of refloating an economy that is leaking everywhere.
The loss of the reading habit due to the abuse of mobile phones partly explains why the verb discern is in disuse. The lack of reading comprehension favors the propagation of simple messages. But it is worth wondering if it has not been the moderate parties themselves that have allowed the ultras to dominate the public debate for the mere fact of having adopted, for fear of appearing lukewarm, some of their postulates.
