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Comparing Grech’s performance with Abela’s, it seems that after a slow start to the campaign, interest in the PN leader is starting to increase while that in the Prime Minister has remained roughly the same.

This is somewhat surprising, especially when considering that Abela is the Prime Minister of an EU member state during a time when the bloc is being threatened with nuclear war.

Abela, who is under fire for his past business dealings with an alleged organised crime member, has been largely absent from the campaign trail over the past week – at least when it comes to interacting with journalists. Bernard Grech, on the other hand, has been out and about and is currently riding a wave of popularity on social media after he revealed that he is apparently a “gamer”.

Going beyond Google and into the realm of social media, it is clear that the PN has come out swinging in this electoral campaign with both Grech and his party generating considerably more Facebook and Instagram posts than Labour which however retains a significantly larger online following.

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PN gaining ground on social media

A strong online presence has been one of the hallmarks of the last two Labour administrations with the PN having lagged far behind in their use of social media as a political tool.

That said, a look at data from Instagram and Facebook over the past four weeks shows the PN starting to make inroads when it comes to its ability to cut through the noise with the electorate.

Both Bernard Grech and the Nationalist Party have published considerably more posts on both Facebook and Instagram than Labour or Abela. They have also seen more engagement than their political opponents.

This can be partly explained by the fact that while the PN published its electoral manifesto in the first week of the campaign, Labour’s is slated for launch this Friday meaning the PN will have had a great deal of manifesto-related content ready to publish.

While both parties post very regularly on Facebook, Grech and the PN are far more prolific on Instagram, where Grech, in particular, has witnessed a sharp increase in his follower growth rate – calculated by taking the increase in followers over a given period and dividing by the number of followers at the start of that period.

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The statistic is somewhat deceiving however since Grech has far fewer followers than Abela does, meaning any increase is going to constitute a much larger portion of his total followers. In absolute terms, the two leaders have continued to add followers at roughly the same rate over the past month.

On the other hand, the Labour Party and Robert Abela register significantly more shares, comments and reactions than the PN.

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The latest electoral battleground to emerge – and one that could prove to have a disproportionate impact on the election if there is a high turnout of 16 to 18-year-old voters – is TikTok, the meme sharing platform that has experienced exponential growth in popularity over the last couple of years. The PN has been far more active on the platform than Labour has, at least in an official capacity.

The PN joined the platform a year and three months ago and has since accumulated over 4,000 followers and 37,900 likes.

It is unclear whether the Labour Party has an official TikTok profile, though several supporter profiles do exist. “Follow_jekk_int_laburist” boasts a total of 1,000 followers, 3,300 likes accumulated since it launched a year ago. Similarly, the page “Laburisti_sal_mewt” has garnered 3,200 followers and a whopping 41,200 likes since being launched roughly a year ago.

A third page, “laburisti” was launched only a month ago and is already followed by 2,900 followers.

With Labour enjoying a 9-point lead according to the latest polls and with data showing interest in the Ukraine war decreasing, the PN will be hoping that it can start to capitalise on its online presence in order to sway the numbers in its favour.

What do you think of the figures?