The Office of the Prime Minister has failed to answer questions sent by this newspaper asking, among other things, how much the PM’s extravagant New Year’s video has cost the Maltese taxpayer.

The video, published on Friday, has been criticized on many levels.

Firstly, it was criticized for being more of a pre-electoral propaganda piece than a new year’s message, which is usually expected to be about unity, respect and tolerance.

In the 20-minute long clip the PM boasts about his government’s achievements, including the scheme for first time buyers, lower income tax, lower energy tariffs and free childcare. Dr Muscat speaks about how the government fixed the economy and how the country is “running” in the right.

“We have the highest economic growth rate in many years and unemployment is at an all-time low,” the PM says, also lauding his government’s pro-business approach, the record tourism numbers and shorter hospital waiting times. He also says Malta excelled at organizing the November summits and promises 2016 to be better yet – a year when the new power station will be completed, pensions will increase and the Air Malta will be saved.

It will also be the year when work will start on the American University of Malta – “the greatest private investment the south has ever” (a shot of Cospicua, not of Zonqor Point, was used here). There was no mention that it is not a university and neither that it is American.

Ironically, the PM spoke next (in this exact order) about safeguarding the environment, stamping out corruption, review the visa issuing process and the Lands Department.

He also managed to insert a couple of jibes at the Opposition, first mentioning “those who tried to scaremonger” about security during the summits and “those who are annoyed at seeing the country move forward.”

The second level on which the video is criticized is the choice of ‘actors.’ Joseph Muscat tried to give the impression that he was invited to a working class couple’s home to share a coffee and a chat but blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed that the man in the video is not exactly working class. She revealed him to be Fernando Agius, the son of Brigitte Agius, one of the owners of Construct Furniture Ltd. The company was given a contract by the current administration to refurbish Dar Malta in Brussels and is also part of the €22.5m tender-winning consortium for the Kappara junction. In the video, Mr Agius tells Dr Muscat how helpful the first time buyers scheme was for him and his wife and tells him that “things at work are improving.” The designer kitchen shown in the duplex apartment in the video was supposedly supplied by Construct Furniture Ltd.

The third level on which the video was criticized is the actual over-the-top, no-expenses-spared production including the extravagant use of drones to film all around the island, and the endless list of shots, including of private workplaces.

The video starts off with Matthew Borg of Red Electrick playing the Maltese anthem on a piano which is perched on a cliff edge, accompanied by six female singers dressed in grey silk dresses.

The piano is next seen surrounded by members of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra on the bastions of St Angelo - the footage again filmed by a drone.

The Office of the Prime Minister had not replied to questions sent by this paper by the time of going to print yesterday. We asked how much the production cost, including a detailed breakdown. We also how the choice of ‘actors’ was made.

Last year’s New Year video was also a bit over the top – it started off with the BOV children’s choir and the MPO playing the national anthem at the Manoel Theatre – but this year’s video went up a couple of notches. The question is will the PL media machine try to outdo itself again next year, and how? Fireworks, choreography and stunts, maybe? 

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s controversial New Year’s message is longer than those of French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron put together.