PL, PN exchange billboard blows over energy subsidies

The election date may not have been announced yet, but that has not stopped the two main parties from engaging in a billboard-based back and forth. 

It started with the Labour Party putting up billboards depicting PN leader Alex Borg together with the words ‘B’Alex Borg u l-PN sussidji short-lived' (With Alex Borg and PN, short-lived subsidies.

The billboard wars have begun

The billboard is part of a wider PL campaign that claims PN would remove gas, fuel and utility subsidies if elected. On Wednesday, the party also posted a reel consisting of a compilation of video clips of Borg casting doubt on the long-term sustainability of the subsidies.

On Thursday, a set of mini-billboards spelling out the word ‘GIDBA’ (lie) were placed under one of the billboards in Marsa.  

The Opposition has sought to fight back against the claims. On Thursday, PN posted its own reel, showing Finance Minister Clyde Caruana in 2023 saying that subsidies “are not meant to be there forever, because otherwise they would induce inefficiency,” and Environment Minister Miriam Dalli in 2026 saying that the government has never said subsidies are a short-term measure. 

Borg himself posted a video insisting that energy prices would not increase under a PN government. 

“We know what people want: energy you can rely on, bills that don’t go up, and a governing that plans ahead,” Borg said, adding the Opposition would invest more in renewable energy, repeating assurances he made during a PN event earlier this month.