'Illegal banners put up before campaign start' - Cleansing responds to criticism

The Cleansing Department has said it removed a Momentum banner over the weekend because it had been put up illegally before the election campaign began.

On Monday, the party complained that the campaign for the forthcoming election was “not a level playing field” after its banner hung over the Santa Venera tunnels was removed by the Cleansing Department.

Responding to the criticism, the department’s director general, Ramon Deguara, told Times of Malta the banners had been put up before the election was announced and therefore had been placed illegally.

 "As we do with any illegally set-up banners, we remove them," he said, adding the department would not remove any banners once the election had been called. “Whether they belong to big parties or small ones, it doesn't matter to us”.

Prime Minister Robert Abela announced the election date of May 30 in a video address yesterday evening.

Deguara added that Momentum was welcome to collect their banners from the department.

Momentum said the Director General's response would have been more credible if it were not so transparently selective.

"The Director General of the Cleansing Department claimed that the banners were removed because they were illegal as the general elections had not been announced yet. Yet, for weeks, the country has been inundated with illegal billboards widely associated with the Labour Party. These were allowed to stand, unchallenged and untouched, across Malta’s roads and public spaces," it said.

"However,  overnight, and coincidentally on the eve of the announcement of the 2026 Maltese general election, Momentum banners were removed with remarkable efficiency, only to be replaced in several instances by Labour Party messaging." 

The party said it had filed a police report for the theft of its banners.   

The director general may face pushback from Momentum chairperson Arnold Cassola: Cassola said yesterday that permits were not required for banners affixed three months ahead of an election.

Last month, the Ombudsman rapped Transport Malta over its poor handling of a request by Momentum to run a political banner on a busy road.

The Ombudsman said that while the transport regulator’s decision was not arbitrary, its failure to justify the refusal to the party represented maladministration.

Cassola charged the banner’s removal with raising questions about the state of Malta’s democracy, while highlighting the disadvantage facing small political parties contesting elections.