Javier Milei, the Argentinian president, has ordered civil servants to stop using gender-neutral or inclusive language, branding the practice as “Marxist”.
The ban will prohibit “inclusive language and everything related to the gender perspective throughout the national public administration”, said Manuel Adornis, Mr Milei’s spokesman.
The move followed a decision this week by Argentina’s defence ministry to revert to “the correct use of Spanish” in its communications.
Spanish speakers have increasingly moved away from the traditional use of masculine forms of nouns to refer to people of any gender, instead using both masculine and feminine genders or gender-neutral forms such as nosotres for we, instead of nosotros and nosotras.
Mr Adornis said traditional Spanish includes everyone and need not be distorted, adding that “gender perspectives have been used for political gain”.
Mr Milei, a hardline libertarian and a former economist, is battling what he considers to be the dominance of “cultural Marxism”.
Green issues and indigenous rights also targeted
The president has said in the past that gender perspective “destroys society’s values”. He has also taken aim at other issues including environmentalism and campaigns for indigenous rights.
Among sweeping changes since he took over the presidency in December, Mr Milei eliminated Argentina’s ministry of women, gender and diversity.
Mr Milei’s Freedom Advances party has also presented legislation that would bring back a ban on abortion, which was only legalised in Argentina in 2020.
Some of Mr Milei’s political rivals dismissed the ban on gender-neutral language as another attempt by the provocative president to distract public attention from Argentina’s economic woes, including an annual inflation rate that topped 250 per cent this month.
Leandro Santoro, an opposition MP, noted sarcastically: “Saying ‘nosotres’ is prohibited, but saying ‘Mongol piece of s- -t’ is being presidential”, referring to language used by Mr Milei when when criticising a rival economist last year.