European elections: who is Fidias Panayiotou, the 24-year-old YouTuber who will represent Cyprus in the European Parliament ?

Fidias Panayiotou cumule plus de 2 millions d’abonnés. Capture d'écran Instagram – fidias0

Les électeurs chypriotes ont élu Fidias Panayiotou, un YouTuber de 24 ans connu pour ses vidéos virales, en tant que député indépendant au Parlement européen.

Election results

With his 2.6 million subscribers on YouTube, he became known thanks to his videos where he sometimes meets celebrities like the American billionaire Elon Musk sometimes organizes crazy culinary competitions.

The YouTuber, who describes himself as a "professional error maker" without experience or political affiliation, had launched a campaign encouraging young people to vote in the weekend elections.

He won 19.4% of the vote on the Mediterranean island, and his unexpected victory is seen as a rejection of traditional political parties. "What's next? ;has happened is a shock, a miracle", declared to the public channel CyBC the young elected official who is also active on Instagram and TikTok.

"Parties should take this as a warning that they must modernize and listen to the people" , he said. The news site Philenews called his rise a "resounding" to the parties and a step towards a "change of the political map".

Apolitical rhetoric

"The young YouTuber, making full use of social networks, with apolitical rhetoric, without political positions, without knowledge – – he admits it himself – – on the European Union, managed to cause an upheaval", writes Philenews.

Observers believe that the election of someone who does not have a detailed program demonstrates that traditional parties are disconnected from voters and do not understand the impact of social networks .

The conservative Disy party obtained 24.8% of the vote, followed by the communist Akel party with 21.5%, which lost one of its two seats in Parliament European.

Voters also sent a member of the ultranationalist Elam party to the European Parliament, part of the rise of the far right in the EU.

With its anti-immigration program, the far-right party won a little more than 11% of the vote and thus offered itself its very first European seat.

Mr. Panayiotou, son of a Greek Orthodox priest, used his presence on social media to encourage young Cypriots to go to the polls.

Videos with celebrities

Among his feats of arms, videos where he exchanges hugs with 100 celebrities, a week spent in a coffin and training with Chinese masters of Shaolin kung fu. Cyprus, the easternmost member of the European Union, has around 900,000 inhabitants, of whom 683,432 were registered to vote.

The turnout rate stood at 58.86%, compared to 45% during the 2019 European elections, an increase that observers partly attribute to & quot;Fidias factor".