NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cypriot YouTuber and TikToker Fidias Panayiotou, who turned his online popularity into a political career at home and in Europe, said Monday he will remain in the European Parliament even though he won a seat in Cyprus' parliament.
"I will stay in the European Parliament because it will be good for the Direct Democracy party to have an MEP," Fidas, who is known only by his first name, told reporters before a proclamation ceremony. "We could have done better, but we are satisfied with what happened, it's a small victory."
Fidas sparked much speculation about his political future throughout the campaign.
Only six months ago, Fidas, 26, founded the Direct Democracy party. He said the party's goal was to disrupt the established political order in Cyprus and abroad by allowing citizens to shape party policies and nominate themselves as candidates online.
Direct Democracy received 5.4% of the total votes in Sunday's parliamentary election and four seats in the 56-member parliament. Fidas, who received the most votes of all his party's candidates, ceded his seat to the runner-up, Ianis Laouris.
While it's an impressive result for a group that shunned traditional ways of attracting voters by shaping its policies, the outcome fell short of Fidas' expectations. That's because almost one in five voters cast a ballot for him in the June 20, 2024 European Parliament election, even though he didn't hold political positions, make promises or present a program for his office.
"It seems that people are now hungry for real people, not political positions, who don't lie, (but) tell the truth," he told the Associated Press after the 2024 election.
Fidas spent years building his popularity with his video posts, where he spends large sums of money, lives for free in an airport for a week, and gets buried alive for 10 days.
His online breakthrough came after he insisted and succeeded in getting a meeting with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also became his fan.
Fidas acknowledged that his online stunts have angered many of the Cypriot voters who are deeply disillusioned with a party system that has operated on the basis of favors for decades.
Fidas used online media as his main tool to communicate with his supporters about his work in the European Parliament, his rationale for voting on issues, and his growing number of opponents who see him and his decision-making based on pranks as politically immature.
He also sparked much controversy over his perceived support for Russia's talks with Ukraine and for questioning what the International Criminal Court said was the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
In Sunday's parliamentary election, the ultra-nationalist National Popular Front of Cyprus, or ELAM, made a significant gain, receiving almost 11% of the votes and eight seats - up from almost 7% and four seats in the previous election.
