He couldn’t get a slot on television or a seat in Parliament, so he got himself a cherry-picker outside.

Żaren Bonnici, better known as tal-Ajkla, held a mass meeting in Valletta this morning, his speech dominated by anger at Xarabank host Peppi Azzopardi and the political party radio stations over their lack of coverage of his one-man movement.

“In three years I’ve never been invited on Xarabank; I call into the radio stations every day and I’m never put through,” Mr Bonnici said, soaring above the heads of a small, amused crowd of onlookers. “They don’t want me to speak up because they’re afraid of me.”

There was to be no repeat of the Ajkla (eagle) party’s first mass meeting in Żabbar three years ago, when thousands gathered with balloons and placards to cheer on the independent candidate, who has garnered fewer than 100 votes nationally in the elections he has contested.

Just a handful of people, almost outnumbered by the small police contingent superfluously standing watch, had gathered outside Parliament when Mr Bonnici took the stand.

But as he rose on his cherry-picker, vented his anger at the political establishment and – memorably – sang his own party’s anthem, the crowd swelled to about 100, many of them filming proceedings on their phones.

Residents of nearby flats followed from their balconies, though whether they were moved by the rhetoric or awakened by the loud music is hard to say.

Mr Bonnici’s speech took aim at a wide range of targets, from the political party media for fermenting partisan hatred among the Maltese people, to independent MP Marlene Farrugia, who he called a “traitor” for abandoning the Labour Party to engage in “theatrics” with the Nationalist Party (referring, presumably, to her participation in the protest against corruption earlier this month).

As his attention turned to the Panama Papers scandal (which he signalled by loudly and repeatedly chanting “Panama”), Mr Bonnici chastised the Prime Minister for not demanding the resignation of those involved, but adding that the Opposition leader should be ready to do the same.

“How can Simon Busuttil come to Valletta and protest against corruption when he has such a stench of corruption himself?” Mr Bonnici demanded, adding that the two parties were determined to keep small parties like his out of Parliament to preserve their duopoly.