Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submitted his resignation for a second time over the weekend after reports surfaced that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is considering appointing businessman and former head of the central bank Serhiy Tigipko to the job, Ukrainian news outlet NV reported on February 28.

Zelenskiy called for a special parliament session on March 5, at which it is reported that the issue will be discussed. Analysts say that Zelenskiy is abandoning the experiment with appointing young idealistic technocrats to lead the government and is now turning to experienced people with government experience, many of whom are associated with both the Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych administrations.

Tigipko is a controversial nomination as although he is an experienced administrator he is also an oligarch from the old school and some Ukraine-watchers worry that he is too close to fellow oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. The fear is Ukraine will return to its old bad habits of allowing oligarchs to charge rents and make the dodgy insider deals that have plagued the economy for most of the last three decades.

The announcement comes at a time where confidence in Zelenskiy’s government is falling and his honeymoon is coming to an end. The former actor and comedian won a landslide election victory in April last year, but recent polls show the population is becoming disappointed thanks to the slow pace of change, although Zelenskiy remains by far the most popular politician. Zelenskiy's popularity has fallen 21% in just the last two months and the land ownership reform to create a land market is extremely unpopular with the electorate, with 60% of those polled against the change.

Another poll from Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found only 25% of Ukrainians think the authorities have been successful in resolving the Donbas conflict compared to 40% in December, it said. About 83% said the fight against high-level corruption had been unsuccessful compared to 76% in December. Support for Honcharuk fell to 8% from 12% over the same period, while 33% have a negative view of him now, reports Reuters.

Tigipko is not a shoo-in for the PM’s job. Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmygal could be made acting prime minister while a permanent replacement is found, NV reported.

This is the second time that Honcharuk has submitted his resignation, which was initially refused by Zelenskiy. The prime minister sent a letter of resignation to Zelenskiy in January after a leaked tape caught him making disparaging remarks about the president in an official meeting. However, in that case it seems the letter was a piece of political theatre as Honcharuk sent the letter directly to the president whereas if he really intended to resign he should have sent it to the Rada which has power to remove him, not the president.

Zelenskiy has acknowledged meeting Tigipko last week.