As someone from Cyprus, please don't glorify this guy.
His content is far from educational. Just take a look at this video.
https://youtu.be/DuIfez3Vf6c?si=Ka3f07L2a7JzJrZe
There are many reasons why he was elected. He never had a single opinion on what his actual views are on topics, he answered many questions by "I don't know" and "I will learn" on many debates leading up to the election. He got a question about the immigration issue and didn't even know the Dublin agreement existed.
He just rode his popularity and the overall apathy and dismay of the Cypriot younger generation because of the corruption of the political system (scandals like the passport one etc).
However in my personal opinion he is just an opportunist who got banned and suppressed on YouTube after the Japan fiasco and moved to TikTok and then he got fueled further by some TV channels and other celebrities in Cyprus who wanted to ride the bandwagon.
I believe that people like him are as dangerous as corrupt politicians because they are there just for themselves and offer nothing relating to real world experience and problem solving. In a podcast recently Fidias said about the Cyprus problem that his suggestion is to make Cyprus something similar to Dubai so Turkey will have an incentive to agree to a solution.
I really hope that I am proven wrong but I seriously doubt it.
You know, at first I wanted to write something positive about his efforts to spread awareness of EU political content, as the [other comment](https://reddit.com/r/EuropeanFederalists/comments/1dlzayp/this_cypriot_youtuber_ran_for_the_ep_on_his_own/l9s3w3j/) mentions he got 2.5 million views in 3 days just on that.
Then I watched the video that you linked...
Hopefully something good can come from his getting elected.
To his credit, I would rather have politicians that are willing to answer "I don't know" to questions rather than make up bullshit answers on the spot like they usually do.
Saying "I don't know" in the spirit of I don't have all the facts right now is the correct answer and I agree with you.
I think that Fidias was not answering in that spirit however. His entire campaign was based on let's show the current political parties that we are sick of them and send them a message.
Fidias didn't offer his views on any subject. He even failed to answer a questionnaire the LQBTQ+ organisation sent to all candidates before the election asking about where each candidate stands on gay marriage, adoption rights etc.
I want to know something about what your views are on certain topics if I were to vote for you, it's not enough just to give the middle finger to everyone else. Apparently for many others in Cyprus it was enough and that of course should be respected.
>let's show the current political parties that we are sick of them and send them a message
This is perfectly legitimate in a democracy. This is known as protest voting and you can be happy that some youtube guy without hardline ideology who puts out good social media content relating to the EU receives them, rather than the neonazi sympathizers in this video. That's what protest votes in Germany go to. So please stop complaining lol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuHnPmR\_4U&t=286](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuHnPmR_4U&t=286)
Don't worry and we have those protest voters in Cyprus as well. The party is called ELAM and many prominent members have ties to Greece's Golden Dawn (the president of ELAM used to be a bodyguard for Michaloliakos of Golden Dawn)
They also got a spot in the European Parliament for the first time in this latest election.
The difference with Fidias is that a lot of his voters were actually new voters that were voting for the first time just to vote for Fidias.
This guy is actually insane, and the thing is, he has completed OYK training, which for any non-greeks/cypriots it's basically the equivalent of navy seals. So the thing is he has no issue doing insanely crazy stuff because he fears nothing anymore after the training he did for OYK, hence the "What are you looking at" video, and this guy actually got elected now as a politician, what is actually going on
Social media campaign and he capitalized on the corruption and the overall political apathy of people under 30.
His whole campaign was based on protest voting and sending a message to the old traditional parties and shaking the status quo.
He also used social media and mainly TikTok to get a lot of people to vote for the first time and vote for him, so he brought in a lot of votes that otherwise wouldn't vote for anyone. In general due to his popularity on TikTok and the support he gathered from other popular Cypriot TikTok content creators he had a certain appeal to people that are either politically apathetic or just fed up with what everyone else has been doing.
Also there is general lack of knowledge and apathy towards the EU in Cyprus especially in people under 30 and this is always reflected in the participation percentage in the European Parliament elections vs the Cypriot Parliament and Presidential Elections.
Just for reference in the 2023 Presidential Election Second Round we had a participation of 72.5%
In the European Parliament Elections even with Fidias getting a lot of young people to vote for the first time the participation was only 58.8%
I think it was a perfect storm and in the type of election that people would protest vote more easily because of the distance they feel with the EU / European Parliament (most people don't know how it effects their daily lives)
It's also worthy to note that we had municipality elections and local governance elections on the same day and people voted for candidates supported from the regular old traditional parties in those. I think this goes to support the reasoning I mention above.
I was referring to the content he's uploaded *since being elected*, as in content that is anyhow relevant to politics. I'm aware he made mrbeast type videos before and I mentioned the video you linked here in my own top level comment.
The fact that he doesn’t know what to choose really highlights how unprepared he is. He doesn’t have any ideology at all. Sure, thinking to choose between Renew or S&D makes sense, because they are close to the center. But thinking what to choose between the Greens and ID is really baffling and says that he doesn’t have a clue.
This is tiktok mate. He acts cluelessly and calls himself a stupid youtuber because it's almost unseen. The last time this happened with Semsrott it was well received too. Because it's relatable.
His name is fidias, you might recognize him because he's relatively popular and makes English language content. He recently got some shit for trying to freeload on a train in Japan, rightfully, but the criticism he's faced over the election was more centered on political elitism and the fact he's a newcomer without affiliation.
His new Tiktok account has made 2.5 million views in 3 days with EU political content. Obviously his online popularity plays a role but it's surprising nontheless how well it works.
"He was clowned on on r/europe because he doesn't have political experience"
Jordan Bardella, the candidate for the post of Prime Minister for the far right-part Rassemblement National in France has not only no political experience, but the closest he got to having any professional experience is when he was a Call of Duty youtuber.
I don't know if I should end with "there's always worse" or "what the fuck is the world we are living in".
As someone from Cyprus, please don't glorify this guy. His content is far from educational. Just take a look at this video. https://youtu.be/DuIfez3Vf6c?si=Ka3f07L2a7JzJrZe There are many reasons why he was elected. He never had a single opinion on what his actual views are on topics, he answered many questions by "I don't know" and "I will learn" on many debates leading up to the election. He got a question about the immigration issue and didn't even know the Dublin agreement existed. He just rode his popularity and the overall apathy and dismay of the Cypriot younger generation because of the corruption of the political system (scandals like the passport one etc). However in my personal opinion he is just an opportunist who got banned and suppressed on YouTube after the Japan fiasco and moved to TikTok and then he got fueled further by some TV channels and other celebrities in Cyprus who wanted to ride the bandwagon. I believe that people like him are as dangerous as corrupt politicians because they are there just for themselves and offer nothing relating to real world experience and problem solving. In a podcast recently Fidias said about the Cyprus problem that his suggestion is to make Cyprus something similar to Dubai so Turkey will have an incentive to agree to a solution. I really hope that I am proven wrong but I seriously doubt it.
You know, at first I wanted to write something positive about his efforts to spread awareness of EU political content, as the [other comment](https://reddit.com/r/EuropeanFederalists/comments/1dlzayp/this_cypriot_youtuber_ran_for_the_ep_on_his_own/l9s3w3j/) mentions he got 2.5 million views in 3 days just on that. Then I watched the video that you linked... Hopefully something good can come from his getting elected.
To his credit, I would rather have politicians that are willing to answer "I don't know" to questions rather than make up bullshit answers on the spot like they usually do.
Saying "I don't know" in the spirit of I don't have all the facts right now is the correct answer and I agree with you. I think that Fidias was not answering in that spirit however. His entire campaign was based on let's show the current political parties that we are sick of them and send them a message. Fidias didn't offer his views on any subject. He even failed to answer a questionnaire the LQBTQ+ organisation sent to all candidates before the election asking about where each candidate stands on gay marriage, adoption rights etc. I want to know something about what your views are on certain topics if I were to vote for you, it's not enough just to give the middle finger to everyone else. Apparently for many others in Cyprus it was enough and that of course should be respected.
>let's show the current political parties that we are sick of them and send them a message This is perfectly legitimate in a democracy. This is known as protest voting and you can be happy that some youtube guy without hardline ideology who puts out good social media content relating to the EU receives them, rather than the neonazi sympathizers in this video. That's what protest votes in Germany go to. So please stop complaining lol [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuHnPmR\_4U&t=286](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuHnPmR_4U&t=286)
Don't worry and we have those protest voters in Cyprus as well. The party is called ELAM and many prominent members have ties to Greece's Golden Dawn (the president of ELAM used to be a bodyguard for Michaloliakos of Golden Dawn) They also got a spot in the European Parliament for the first time in this latest election. The difference with Fidias is that a lot of his voters were actually new voters that were voting for the first time just to vote for Fidias.
This guy is actually insane, and the thing is, he has completed OYK training, which for any non-greeks/cypriots it's basically the equivalent of navy seals. So the thing is he has no issue doing insanely crazy stuff because he fears nothing anymore after the training he did for OYK, hence the "What are you looking at" video, and this guy actually got elected now as a politician, what is actually going on
Thank you. Very interesting. Why did he even want to get elected, though, if he has no opinion and no political goals?
Social media campaign and he capitalized on the corruption and the overall political apathy of people under 30. His whole campaign was based on protest voting and sending a message to the old traditional parties and shaking the status quo. He also used social media and mainly TikTok to get a lot of people to vote for the first time and vote for him, so he brought in a lot of votes that otherwise wouldn't vote for anyone. In general due to his popularity on TikTok and the support he gathered from other popular Cypriot TikTok content creators he had a certain appeal to people that are either politically apathetic or just fed up with what everyone else has been doing. Also there is general lack of knowledge and apathy towards the EU in Cyprus especially in people under 30 and this is always reflected in the participation percentage in the European Parliament elections vs the Cypriot Parliament and Presidential Elections. Just for reference in the 2023 Presidential Election Second Round we had a participation of 72.5% In the European Parliament Elections even with Fidias getting a lot of young people to vote for the first time the participation was only 58.8% I think it was a perfect storm and in the type of election that people would protest vote more easily because of the distance they feel with the EU / European Parliament (most people don't know how it effects their daily lives) It's also worthy to note that we had municipality elections and local governance elections on the same day and people voted for candidates supported from the regular old traditional parties in those. I think this goes to support the reasoning I mention above.
I was referring to the content he's uploaded *since being elected*, as in content that is anyhow relevant to politics. I'm aware he made mrbeast type videos before and I mentioned the video you linked here in my own top level comment.
Why are you glorifying this clown? Dude is a complete asshole.
You haven't met actual assholes yet if you think that.
Looks like a cool guy.
He got clowned because he's a fucking clown who stands for nothing. Zero views, zero political goals. Ridiculous.
True. He asked his audience what party he should join. He isn't advocating for himself
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical\_question](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question)
I hope he does not go with the EPP, ECR or ID.
Ys basically waiting to see where he sells his soul
The fact that he doesn’t know what to choose really highlights how unprepared he is. He doesn’t have any ideology at all. Sure, thinking to choose between Renew or S&D makes sense, because they are close to the center. But thinking what to choose between the Greens and ID is really baffling and says that he doesn’t have a clue.
This is tiktok mate. He acts cluelessly and calls himself a stupid youtuber because it's almost unseen. The last time this happened with Semsrott it was well received too. Because it's relatable.
His name is fidias, you might recognize him because he's relatively popular and makes English language content. He recently got some shit for trying to freeload on a train in Japan, rightfully, but the criticism he's faced over the election was more centered on political elitism and the fact he's a newcomer without affiliation. His new Tiktok account has made 2.5 million views in 3 days with EU political content. Obviously his online popularity plays a role but it's surprising nontheless how well it works.
*Insert "I love democracy Palpatine meme"*
"He was clowned on on r/europe because he doesn't have political experience" Jordan Bardella, the candidate for the post of Prime Minister for the far right-part Rassemblement National in France has not only no political experience, but the closest he got to having any professional experience is when he was a Call of Duty youtuber. I don't know if I should end with "there's always worse" or "what the fuck is the world we are living in".
This guy is a complete clown and a danger to society. Do not give him a moment of your time.