Propaganda round-up: ‘Spongebob’ Abela on the run and the PN’s manifesto costings

As the electoral campaign intensified, the third week of the campaign focused on the head-to-head campaign between Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition leader Bernard Grech.

The PN kept revisiting the controversy surrounding Abela’s pocketed €45,000 through a property deal with alleged criminal Christian Borg.

On an ad which started to air on 10 March, PN alluded that Abela’s predecessor and former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was the one pulling the strings. The ad shows clips of Muscat’s reappearance on the campaign trail, where he spoke at unofficial events for particular PL candidates.

Another advert picked on the PM’s apparent reluctancy to address media questions. PN put in clips of the trailer for 2020 movie Sponge on the Run, in a reference to the nickname the PM’s daughter had chosen for her father. Abela recently exited the side door after an hour-and-a-half event, leading a stream of journalists on an unsuccessful chase.

On 11 March, on the day the PL manifesto is expected to be published, PN issued an advert calling the PM “without a plan, without a manifest and without a vision”.

A slowed down video in black-and-white, featured Abela’s reverberated voice during a rally, calling on supporters to distrust the PN.

The Labour Party issued an ad on 5 March, picking on the PN proposal for pre-1995 rent subsidies. Although PN insisted that whoever already qualified for the subsidy would not be affected, the manifesto said otherwise. This probable misprint went down well with the PL and they campaigned heavily on it, saying that Bernard Grech would be taking away the subsidies from the elderly.

On the same day, another ad made a whole mockery of Grech’s slip-ups, with phrases taken out of context accompanied by playful animations.

On 9 March an advert said Grech wants to become Prime Minister at all costs, with PL using clips from speeches where Grech used harsh words against the party. The clip ended with the words “Don’t risk it”.

Multiple posts were published on 10 March, putting Grech and Abela side-to-side, with a thumbs down underneath Grech’s reworded proposals and a thumbs up next to Abela’s. In a particular one, PL poked fun at the revisions of the PN’s manifesto, adding that the proposals were not costed.

The latest advert published on 11 March, PL called out the PN for the costing of their proposals. It also said they are full of “terms and conditions”, in reference to the ESG compliance criteria certain proposals have.