President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca has blasted the people behind a sick online meme that sought to make fun of people with Down Syndrome.

The meme, which appeared yesterday on the social media, saw a PN billboard edited with Joseph Muscat’s face swapped with that of a person with the condition. The edited picture appeared on a Facebook page that appears to have been taken down.

“It is disappointing and heartbreaking that there are some among us who are dragging politics down into the lowest levels of maturity, decency, respect and ethics. It is shameful how there are some among us who have decide to use politics as an excuse to resort to insults of the worst kind and in the process hurt vulnerable, sick and disabled people,” the President wrote in a Facebook post.

PN communications officer Matthew Bonett yesterday said the PN “categorically condemned the use of vulnerable people in billboard memes through social media, and said the incident was shameful.

PN Leader Simon Busuttil also referred to the meme this morning and said he condemned it without reservation.  “Persons with disability should never be used in this way. I condemn this in the same way I had condemned the attacks on the Prime Minister’s children.”