Spot the difference: PN’s protest logo comes straight out of a Graffitti manual

The Nationalist Party is organising a protest on Sunday against the ‘theft of our quality of life’ and its logo is a clenched black and red fist, reminiscent of Moviment Graffitti

The PN's quality of life protest poster (top) has the look and feel of Movement Graffitti's imagery from 2015 (below)
The PN's quality of life protest poster (top) has the look and feel of Movement Graffitti's imagery from 2015 (below)

Bernard Grech will be rallying the troops on Sunday in what has been termed as a ‘national protest’ over the deterioration in the ‘quality of life’.

It will be the Nationalist Party’s first protest since 2017 and it comes a fortnight after the party opted out of its traditional Independence Day mass meeting.

The protest’s central theme is vague: ‘National Protest Against the Theft of Our Quality of Life’. And if Grech’s Sunday speech at Sannat is anything to go by, the protest is against government wastefulness on cronies at the expense of ordinary people squeezed by rising inflation.

But it is not the theme that raised an eyebrow in activist circles but the poster’s socialist-looking logo that comes straight out of Moviment Graffitti’s playbook from 2015.

The protest poster, comprised of a black and red clenched fist, overlying diagonal stripes of white and red, has the look and feel of the logo Graffitti used in 2015 made up of a white star with a clenched fist superimposed over diagonal stripes of red and black.

The PN’s co-option of Graffitti’s symbolism and colours did not go unnoticed by environmental and social activist Wayne Flask.

In a cheeky Facebook post, Flask remarked that since civil society has consistently earned more trust than the PN, the party is now trying to copy their designs.

“They are trying to copy designs used by a group that has absolutely nothing to do with the PN, just as they [the PN] have absolutely nothing to do with socialism,” Flask wrote.

He also pointed out the irony of a conservative party adopting the symbolism of progressive movements. “Beneath the stolen red fist there is the Maduma [the PN emblem] and the cry against civil liberties like equality and in favour of mass deportations.”

The words ‘mass deportations’ are a reference to recent statements by PN home affairs spokesperson Joe Giglio calling for the immediate deportation of foreigners who break the law.  

“This is a new low for a demo-christian party, and carnival has not yet arrived,” Flask ended his Facebook missive.

The PN has been under constant pressure by some of its grassroots to mobilise people, especially in light of successful protests organised by Repubblika and Graffitti targeting corruption and illegal land grabs respectively.

However, party functionaries have had to contend with a support base that lacks enthusiasm in the wake of a third consecutive electoral drubbing earlier this year.

On Sunday, Grech blamed the deteriorating quality of life on government and urged people to be angry.

“It’s time to show our anger; it’s time to show you are fed up,” the PN leader told his audience, inviting people to join the party in Valletta on Sunday at 3pm to protest against the government.

“It’s time to tell government to stop stealing our quality of life; to stop stealing our children’s future; to stop stealing their hope,” Grech rallied. “This government tells us there is not enough [money] for us but it has enough for its friends.”

Grech’s angry crescendo on Sunday may have been a reaction to the party’s lacklustre Independence Day celebrations. But whether co-opting Graffitti’s look and feel will enable the PN to mobilise people is another matter altogether.