Kiev (AFP)

The new Ukrainian parliament, dominated largely by President Volodymyr Zelensky's party, is meeting for the first time on Thursday with the promise to immediately adopt dozens of laws and quickly invest a government.

Former comedian triumphantly elected in April with the promise of "breaking the system", Zelensky has an unprecedented margin of maneuver to assert his political ambitions. His youngest party Servant of the People won an absolute majority in the unicameral Parliament in July.

Zelensky, 41, is said to have, according to a source close to the presidency questioned by AFP, chosen for the post of prime minister, one of the heads of his administration in charge of economic affairs: Olexiï Goncharouk, a lawyer by training, little known and only 35 years old.

His investiture by the deputies, which seems assured, could, according to some media, intervene as of Thursday. The source questioned by AFP however said that this vote should rather take place next week.

Mr Goncharuk was appointed to the presidential administration at the end of May after leading the BRDO analysis center in Kiev, funded by the European Union, since 2015, whose activities are aimed at improving the business climate in Ukraine.

The head of state aims to put an end to the deadly war with pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, to stop corruption and revive the economy.

According to a parliamentary source, a new Prosecutor General and a new chief of security services (SBU), two key positions, should also be appointed Thursday.

- "Extraordinary opportunity" -

Zelensky's team also instructed his deputies to "prepare to work all night" from Thursday to Friday to adopt dozens or even a hundred laws, according to information website lb.ua.

Composed of candidates often novices in politics, the party of Mr. Zelensky won 254 seats out of a total of 450 in early elections in July. This is the first time that a party has achieved such a result since the independence of this former Soviet republic at the gateway to the European Union.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary responsibility," noted Serguiï Foursa, head of the investment group Dragon Capital, on his blog. "This Parliament will be able to accelerate structural change by transforming the country," but it could also "get bogged down in populism and nothing will change," he warns.

The overwhelming electoral success of Zelensky and his party marks an unprecedented political renewal in Ukraine, one of the poorest countries in Europe. It illustrates the massive disappointment of the Ukrainians against the old elites, judged to be ineffective and corrupt.

Four other political forces managed to cross the 5% threshold to enter Parliament. They are the pro-russians of the Opposition Platform (43 seats), the Homeland party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (26), the former President Petro Poroshenko (25) and the Voice formation. founded by Ukrainian rock superstar Sviatoslav Vakarchuk (20).

Twenty-six seats were not filled in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia, and in the territories controlled by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

© 2019 AFP