Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech was conspicuously absent from the consultation meeting the Prime Minister held with the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) on Monday afternoon, causing many to wonder if the Nationalist Party (PN) has unveiled an umpteenth strategy for the forthcoming electoral campaign: replace your tired, worn-out ministers with younger MPs and candidates to project a fresh look.
In fact, flanking Lawrence Gonzi during the consultation meeting about the government’s six-point vision for 2015 were Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Nadur mayor Chris Said and Siggiewi mayor Robert Musumeci.
Zammit Dimech was yesterday unavailable for comment despite calls made on his cell phone.
Pullicino Orlando is a backbencher with clear ministerial ambitions, although in 2004 he declined a ministerial post because of his professional commitments as a dentist.
Said, 37, a lawyer by profession and former president of the Gozo Football Association (GFA) from 1992 to 2001, has served as Nadur mayor uninterruptedly since April 1999. Politically he has been member of the PN youth executive (MZPN) from 1990 to 1995 and member of the PN executive since 1996.
33-year-old Musumeci, an architect by profession and chairman of the Building Industry Consultative Council (BICC), has been Siggiewi mayor for the past seven years and is now contesting the sixth and seventh electoral districts, where he will be facing PN heavyweights including Louis Galea and Ninu Zammit, as well as Pullicino Orlando himself.
Completely absent from the meeting was the affable Francis Zammit Dimech, the Tourism and Culture Minister.
Even the choice of place was not coincidental: holding the consultation meeting in a hotel rather than at the PN’s “Dar Centrali” was meant by party strategists as a sign that the Nationalist Party wants to reach out to civil society.
The same strategy was repeated yesterday 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 and brand new candidate Georg Sapiano.
Although relatively young himself and a newcomer to the Cabinet, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech, who is politically responsible for the finance portfolio, was also absent from this meeting, because he was addressing a pre-budget discussion.

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt