The Labour Party has launched an aggressive ad campaign through telephone, radio, television and social media in an attempt to drum up support and attendance for the Worker's Day Celebrations on 1 May.

Members of the general public contacted The Malta Independent after they received phone calls urging attendance for the event, which will take place at the Triton Fountain.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's statement on Sunday - that the Labour Party mass meeting on 1 May will be the answer to the Daphne Project - triggered the frenzied campaign to encourage as many people as possible to the Worker's Day manifestation.

A social media effort had started before Muscat's speech, but it intensified after Muscat's words. Personal phone calls have been made to Labour supporters, urging them to attend "as a sign of solidarity with Muscat and his family", as one recipient told The Malta Independent.

Over the last few days, social media has become inundated with sponsored ads from a number of key figures within the PL, including Ministers Own Bonnici and Edward Scicluna, Parliamentary Secretary Aaron Farrugia, PL Whip Byron Camilleri, PL President Daniel Micallef and PL CEO Randolph Debattista.

Most of the individuals stressed the importance of the event, with Scicluna saying that the public needed to "protect this government because this government is not guaranteed."

In his video, Debattista expressly said that in a country that is performing well economically, "you still find an opposition that wants to criticise or protests every proposal made by the government, even it means hurting those who are most vulnerable. On 1 May, we will give them their reply in Triton Square."

Contacted by the newsroom, a Labour Party spokesperson said:

"It is normal for the Labour Party to appeal to the public to attend the 1 May activity. This is an important feast from the Labour Party, especially given that this year we will be celebrating the lowest rate of unemployment in our history, an economic surplus, and improve conditions. There were no phone calls from the organising team of the event. Currently, we use social media and other conventional media channels as they are a stronger medium to translate the message that next Tuesday we will meet at Triton Square because this country has a lot to be proud of."

Worker's Day has always been an occasion linked with the Labour Party. Last year, PM Muscat had announced the date of the election at Labour's activity in Castille Square. It was a few days after allegations that his wife Michelle was the owner of a company opened in Panama, an accusation that the Muscats reject and one which pushed the PM to call an early election.

A year later, Muscat is still once again under great pressure, this time after a consortium of international newspapers published a string of reports that have continued to damage Muscat's reputation.

This drive for an even larger attendance comes following the allegations made by 'The Daphne Project', which has so far published emails showing links between 17 Black and the two offshore Panamanian companies owned by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi; and claimed that Economy Minister Chris Cardona he had been seen in a bar in Siggiewi with one of the three men accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia and met with the person the day prior to his arrest; that Pilatus Bank was used to "move millions around Europe" by a network of over 50 companies and trusts "secretly owned by Azerbaijan's ruling elite; and that Nexia BT 'withheld' information from FIAU.