2017 billboard revisited How a message on a political poster came true

In the run-up to any election, political parties spend money to promote their political message via billboards.

Apart from advertisements on the traditional media and, more recently, in the social media, they put up posters in strategic places on Malta’s busiest roads.

The Labour Party spent much more than the Nationalist Party during the last campaign in 2017. The PL was, and still is, in a much better financial position than the PN. There were many more billboards promoting the PL’s message, than that of the PN.

Today, looking back at the 2017 campaign, it is one of the few posters put up by the PN that stands out the most. It hit the nail right on the head.

It showed a photo of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, looking gloomy and accompanied by the words “Shame on you”.

It must be remembered that the last election was called a year earlier than scheduled, right at the centre of a political storm that started with the

Panama Papers publication in 2016, and followed with the PM calling for a magisterial inquiry just before the date of the 2017 election was announced.

Schembri and Mizzi had been caught having secretively opened a company in Panama while the owner of a third company going by the name of

Egrant had remained unnamed. It had later been alleged by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that the owner was none other than the PM’s wife Michelle. The inquiry, the conclusions of which were published in July 2018, long after the election was held, did not find any evidence of this. Earlier this month, the

Opposition Leader won a constitutional case to obtain a full copy of the inquiry report, and published it the following day.

Going back to that poster, the PN had specifically picked on Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi as their main target during the election campaign. Their message was that these three could not be trusted. They were the symbol of all that was wrong with the Labour government. But their message remained unheeded, and Labour won the election with a strong majority. Muscat remained PM, Mizzi was given a ministerial portfolio and Schembri retained the post of OPM chief of staff.

With all that happened during 2019, the PN’s message on that poster has been vindicated.

Muscat, Mizzi and Schembri have all resigned their post in the wake of the investigations into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Schembri was arrested by the police and questioned on his alleged involvement, and his since also given his testimony in court. Mizzi also resigned, on the same day (Black Tuesday, 26 November), claiming he was extraneous to the case but moving out in the interests of the country. Muscat announced his resignation on 1 December, but prolonged the agony to the 12 January in spite of repeated calls to quit immediately.

They brought shame to the country, as was predicted in that 2017 poster.