Maybe it won’t be the word many will be hearing in the ensuing electoral campaign.
But “jeunism” – the tendency to prefer young people over older people – is the keyword in the Nationalist government’s attempt at shedding its fusty image of an over-the-hill Cabinet.
Nothing sums up the campaign to portray a younger face better than Education Minister Louis Galea’s own self-inflicted jibe in a recent political address. According to reports, the 59-year-old Galea – the eldest Cabinet member – pointed out that both him and Labour leader Alfred Sant will be celebrating their 60th birthday anniversary next year.
“Lawrence Gonzi is 54 years of age, but both Sant and I will be applying for our kartanzjan,” the minister said as he extolled his “young” Prime Minister.
At this masochistic stage of their campaign, it looks like it won’t be long before the PN start using pimply euphemisms like “cool” or “hot”. Gonzi has already “ditched” senior members like Francis Zammit Dimech in important meetings, and instead had himself flanked with young aspirants with no chance of even smelling a seat in the Cabinet.
The tactic of pushing aside the byrlcreamed fogeys has so far produced mixed results. Last Monday, former minister and political observer Lino Spiteri called the spin “complex” – Gonzi’s attempt at giving the impression that his next Cabinet, if re-elected, will have few of the old faces in it, was acutely described by Spiteri as putting “fresh cherries on a stale cake”. Labour have caught on to the dark ploy as well, deploying its newsroom to track down the ministers left out of the Gonzi Jugen.
So far, the PM has ditched his main ministers in significant meetings by towing young MPs and candidates around as the tentative faces of a future Nationalist government. Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, for example, was conspicuously absent from a consultation meeting last week which Gonzi held with the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA).
Instead he opted for Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, 44, Nadur mayor Chris Said, 37, and Siggiewi mayor Robert Musumeci, 33.
The same strategy was repeated when Gonzi met a delegation from Finance Malta led by Chairman Joe Zammit Tabona. Flanking the Prime Minister were another two younger politicians: MP Clyde Puli, 37, and brand new candidate Georg Sapiano. Although relatively young himself, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Tonio Fenech was also absent from this meeting, because he was addressing a pre-budget discussion.
But the seemingly deliberate exclusion of the PN heavyweights has raised questions. By excluding his most experienced and recognisable faces in the mix, there is little to convince that his younger candidates can match up to the seasoned Nationalist veterans.
Lino Spiteri went as far as to question Gonzi’s intentions. “Gonzi knows as much as the next garrulous party member and observer that he presides over a stale Cabinet team. Nevertheless, he is determined not to replace any of his ministers… Presumably none of the sitting backbenchers have dared ask the PM whom does he thinks he is kidding.”
The tactic is even more questionable because it was none other than the veteran statesman himself, Eddie Fenech Adami, who at 69 ushered Malta into the European Union.
By showcasing political candidacies with the supposedly greater vitality and physical beauty of the Nationalist’s young Turks – a quantity in severe shortage – the message jars with the government’s own efforts to keep the elderly active, to have more workers past the age of 61 working, and to prepare a young workforce for a later pensionable age.
So you know something’s not quite right with the electoral machine when your Trojan horse opens up and, lo and behold, moon-faced Clyde Puli and his goatee are scrambled into action.
Just because Gonzi never found time to reshuffle his wizened old ministers around, doesn’t mean he can be let off the hook with the moisturised looks of people like Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando or Chris Said.
Experience communicates security and intellectual rigour – something the lobbies Lawrence Gonzi has met so far will certainly want more of, as opposed to untried toadies. When all this deliberate lashing of youthfulness backfires, it will take more than the king’s horses, men and beauticians to put the Nationalists together again.

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All hail the old fogeys!

At their venerable age they might have been easily pensioned off into leafy retirement homes, but their inner strength prevailed.

Roger Milla, 55
Most footballers would be considered ripe for retirement at 38; but “Milla the killer” went on to score four goals in the 1990 World Cup, taking Cameroon to the quarterfinals. Milla’s spectacular run past goalie Jorge Burrochaga stunned cup holders Argentina in the opening match of the competition. He played his third and last World Cup in 1994, aged 42, scoring against Russia to break his own record as the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history.

Gore Vidal, 81
He partied with Isherwood, slept with Kerouac, dined with Auden, was related to the Kennedys, travelled with Tennessee Williams and befriended Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. Need we say more?

Keith Richards, 63
Despite truffling the entire spectrum of recreational drugs, dear old Keef Richards has aged gracefully and keeps on touring and recording, concussions from falling off coconut trees notwithstanding.

Germaine Greer, 68
She has been in the business of shaking up a complacent establishment for nearly 40 years, firmly putting her amongst the pantheon of greats, eons away from the effeteness of stars like Madonna. Candid narrator of her own experiences of lesbian sex, rape, abortion, infertility, failed marriage and menopause, to many women Greer is a hero.

La Vallette
At 67, Jean Parisot La Vallette was made Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers and successfully fought and repulsed the Turks at the Great Siege of Malta (1565). Without his valiant efforts, Malta today would have had a hard time convincing Brussels of its eligibility to become an EU member state.

Margaret Thatcher, 81
She became British Prime Minister at 54, leading the British into war against Argentina in a moral battle of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. The Iron Lady gave the Tories their greatest moments of glory, leaving office at the age of 75.

Winston Churchill
Appointed head of the War Cabinet at 66, age did little to wither the resolve of Sir Winston in his tireless campaign against the considerably younger Adolf Hitler (who became Chancellor of Germany at just 44). Of course there is little doubt which of these two leaders would be favoured locally, judging by the current bias in favour of the young.

Eddie Fenech Adami, 71
If Louis Galea is looking forward to his kartanzjan, President of the Republic Eddie Fenech Adami has been enjoying his for over a decade. Still fondly known as “Missier Malta Ewropea” by his Nationalist devotees, Fenech Adami was 67 – seven years older than Opposition leader Alfred Sant – when he piloted Malta into the European Union in 2003.