The grotesque embrace of Milei and the fury

Press photographers have the power to stop time and freeze action in the most eloquent hundredth of a second. An image of Javier Milei and Isabel Díaz Ayuso about to merge into a hug is making waves this Thursday on the front pages. It is a grotesque scene: the profusion of arms in disharmonious directions and the erratic torsos (oh, the Madrid president and her verticality) make them look like two puppet characters in a hysterical children's play: the only thing missing is for the puppets to shout "If you see the perro, shout very loudly, children!" Perhaps that is why La Razón opts for a more discreet image, where a serene and balanced handshake can be seen. Newspapers most sympathetic to Sanchismo, such as El País or La Vanguardia, take advantage of this strident photograph and try to neutralize the meeting by reminding readers in the front-page texts that Alberto Núñez Feijóo avoided sharing the frame with the anarcho-ultra-liberal-carajista, who on this occasion did not bring his chainsaw. They also explain that Abascal preferred to do a Zoom, which is like the poor man's handshake when you don't want to go to the trouble of actually meeting someone. Once again, we see how this campaign is being articulated around rage baiting or the clickbaiting of anger: the photo of Sánchez and Begoña larger in the right-wing newspapers, to inflame their readers, and that of Ayuso and Milei in those of the other trench, to achieve a symmetrical effect.

All of this, deep down, speaks to us of an exhausted politics, which does not reach the electorate with proposals but with gestures of dubious efficacy that generate antibodies in the opposing side, conveniently amplified by the media. The conflict we see these days in France can also be seen as an effect of this same galloping crisis of intermediation. After all, what significance does it have that the Argentine president comes to hand out insults in anyone's daily life?