On YouTube, Fidias Panayiotou posts viral pranks (“I Recreated Hunger Games In Real Life”) and joke videos (“I found my future wife in Ikea”) to his millions of followers. But he also vlogs about politics—he’s pro-Palestine, pro-Elon Musk and a critic of Ukraine—and what it is like being Cyprus’s only independent member of the European parliament (MEP).
Born in Cyprus, Panayiotou, now 25, began making YouTube videos and quickly became a small-town celebrity. “I love the power of taking your phone, filming a video and having hundreds of thousands of people see it,” he says.
But Panayiotou wanted more. He moved to Los Angeles and started creating content in English, amassing 2.7m YouTube subscribers by completing outrageous challenges, from fasting for 30 days to living in an airport for a week. Panayiotou’s next unexpected challenge became running in the 2024 European parliamentary elections. “It all started as a joke. I didn’t like politics,” he says. “But I was angry with the politicians, because I felt like they were lying to me.”
Running as an independent in Cyprus, Panayiotou was initially dismissed by the media and political establishment. But his mastery of social media gave him an edge. “I knew how to get the attention of people,” he says. “That was my job, and I was making $50,000 a month doing that on YouTube.” Social media became his primary weapon in driving an anti-establishment message. “I was going around Cyprus, knocking on doors, doing livestreams, speaking about how wrong our regulations are, how our education system sucks and advising people on how to register to vote.”
He built his own media ecosystem: podcast interviews with Cypriot political figures, daily vlogs and an online following that dwarfed traditional media. “When the media tries to cancel me, they get like 40,000 views on TV. I make one video and get 300,000. I own the narrative, so nobody can cancel me.”
In June 2024, he shocked the system and was elected as Cyprus’s first ever independent MEP, coming third with nearly 20 per cent of the vote.
A year on, he has used his parliamentary platform to supercharge his social media presence, regularly vlogging from the European parliament. “I don’t depend on anyone. I don't need to suck anyone’s dick to get on TV. The televisions are begging for me because I have the views. People watch me because I'm interesting,” he says.
His antics in Brussels have caused plenty of uproar. He’s been labelled “Elon Musk’s man in the European parliament”, with the billionaire frequently sharing his videos on X. “I’m inspired by what Musk is doing,” he says. “I agree with him on a lot of topics, like freedom of speech. But we don’t speak, he just retweets me. We have zero relationship.”
Panayiotou often advocates using social media polls to shape parliamentary votes. Early in his term, he posted a poll on X asking whether he should vote for Ursula von der Leyen’s reappointment as president of the European Commission. After 100,000 votes, he voted against her. He’s also developed an app, exclusive to Cyprus, where citizens can vote on issues—which he says influences the decisions he makes in Brussels.
His most serious controversy came after a recent trip to Moscow during Russia’s “Victory Day” celebrations, which triggered significant backlash from his fellow parliamentarians. Panayiotou has often called for cuts to military aid to Ukraine and believes the EU should focus on “diplomacy” instead of military action.
In a fiery interview, a Ukrainian journalist accused the MEP of being “an asset to Russia” by using language that critics say echoes Kremlin propaganda when speaking to his thousands of online followers. “In the interview, I made some mistakes. I only had three hours of sleep, didn’t explain my argument well, and said some bullshit,” he says. But remorse isn’t his style. “The cool thing about social media is I don’t really give a fuck. I’m just improving myself. I have only been in politics for a year.”
Panayiotou has reshaped what campaigning for parliament and being an MEP can look like. Will he stay in politics? “I try to not limit myself with projections the future. I try to stay open and just follow what sounds fun to me.”
