# Fidias Panayiotou

Fidias Panayiotou MEP (Greek: Φειδίας Παναγιώτου; born 10 April 2000), known mononymously as Fidias, is a Cypriot politician and YouTuber who was elected as an independent MEP in the 2024 European Parliament election.

## Personal life

Fidias was born in Meniko, in the Nicosia District of Cyprus. During his mandatory military service, he served in the Cypriot Underwater Demolition Team. He has a fiancée named Styliana.

## Career
### YouTube career

Fidias began posting videos on YouTube in 2019.
On October 8, 2022, Fidias began a mission to hug Elon Musk after having hugged 99 other celebrities for a video. While waiting outside Twitter's headquarters for Musk to appear almost every day, he encouraged his followers to "spam" Elon's mother, Maye Musk, with his request, which she described as "malicious". On January 21, 2023, Musk met and hugged Fidias in the headquarters building.
In January 2023, Fidias announced on Cypriot television his intention to interview every candidate running for the 2023 Cypriot presidential election. He hosted 12 out of the 14 candidates; with Nikos Christodoulides and Andreas Mavroyiannis, the two front-runners, not accepting his invitation.
Through his Youtube channel "Fidias Podcast", he has interviewed various influential personalities, including Nigel Farage, Nas Daily and Andrew Tate.
As of January 22, 2025, he had more than 2.7 million subscribers on YouTube.

#### Fare evasion videos

In September 2023, Fidias uploaded a video of himself freeriding on the Bengaluru Metro in India. The management of the train service responded that they would be filing a criminal case against him.
On October 20, 2023, he continued with a video on travelling across Japan for free with three other YouTubers. He travelled on public transportation modes such as buses and trains while skipping on paying for his fare through various means, and begging for cash. He also passed himself off as a guest of a hotel that he was not staying at to help himself to its breakfast. He was criticized for his actions in the video, and made an apology video, which was subsequently deleted. YouTube also removed this video along with four others, including a 2022 video on travelling across United Kingdom for free, for violating its community guidelines.

### Political career
#### European Parliament (2024–present)

In April 2024, Fidias announced his candidacy to the European Parliament, running on an anti-partisan platform and stating his goal to promote youth involvement in politics. As a TikToker with no prior political experience, he was widely regarded as a novelty candidate, attracting significant media attention and energizing younger voters. He emphasised education as his priority, aiming to enhance schools by eliminating exams and promoting self-education. He also acknowledged the significance of artificial intelligence and Bitcoin. Fidias finished third with 19.4% of the popular vote, topping the polls and securing a seat in the European Parliament.
During his first days in office he let people vote in social media polls for his party affiliation and voting decisions as MEP. On June 9, Panayiotou let people vote in a poll on TikTok if he should join the Greens–European Free Alliance or remain independent. He claims that 10% of the entire population of Cyprus voted in the poll and 76% voted that he would remain independent which he then did. He calls his method a more "direct democracy with the people." In July 2024, he voted against Ursula von der Leyen remaining the president of the European Commission, in accordance with the results of a poll he conducted on his X account. In December of the same year, Fidias announced he was "creating an app for direct democracy", through which European citizens will be able to vote, and have a direct saying on matters discussed in the European parliament.
Fidias was heavily scrutinised by media in both Greece and Cyprus for meeting with Turkish Cypriot influencer Ibrahim Beycanli (known by his online alias "Urban Cypriot") and saying he was only taught "half the history" regarding the Cyprus problem. Their collaboration was made public on 14 August 2024, the 50th anniversary of the second Turkish invasion, a day also marked by Solomos Solomou's killing at the hands of Turkish occupation forces in 1996. Within the Turkish Cypriot community, the video received mixed reactions.
On 13 December 2024, Fidias and Beycanli organized an event featuring Andreas Mavroyiannis and Özdil Nami, former negotiators from both sides of the Cyprus settlement talks, to discuss the past and future of the negotiations. The event was open to the public and it was streamed live on Fidias' social media.
On January 24, 2025, he organized an open discussion with Stefanos Kasselakis, the former leader of the opposition in Greece and current president of the Movement for Democracy, which was streamed live on Youtube.
Since his election, Fidias has been publicly endorsed by Elon Musk on multiple occasions through his posts on X. Notably, in November 2024, Musk posted "Fidias for EU president!!", while in February 2025 he described Fidias as "smart, super high energy" and someone who "genuinely cares about you!". Musk has also seemingly expressed approval of Fidias' views on free speech and the Ukraine war. Due to these interactions, Politico has described Fidias as "Elon Musk's man in the European Parliament". In response, Fidias has denied "being Elon Musk's puppet," emphasizing that while Musk appreciates his ideas and occasionally comments on his social media posts, they do not have personal or direct communication. He has also invited Politico's journalists to his podcast.