Influencer sweeps Cyprus EU elections, acts as a bulwark against far right

As Cypriot members of the European Parliament (MEPs) formally dressed in suits, commentated on the results of the European Parliament on national TV, a newly-elected parliamentarian,  Fidias Panayiotou, in contrast, wore a t-shirt and shorts and celebrated with a “dab” move, a popular hip-hop dance move and meme.

The dabber, Fidas Panayiotou, a Gen Z YouTuber came third in the Cyprus EU elections taking 19.4% of the popular vote, according to official data.

Centre-right DISY came first at 24.8% followed by The Left’s AKEL at 21.5% and ELAM, a far-right party, with 11.2%.

“Following the results, the political establishment has been trying to make sense of the votes, with candidates blaming voters for Panayiotou’s election instead of trying to figure out what they did go wrong,” said Panagiotis Tsangaris, journalist and political analyst at DigitalTree.

Panayiotou’s support, equivalent to almost 20% of the vote, had broad appeal, including people from all ages, said Yiorgos Kakouris, who covers Cypriot and EU politics for Cypriot media, and even attracted substantial support in rural villages, official data shows.

“But the political parties have a greater responsibility for this outcome, because this reactionary attitude didn’t come from anywhere, it existed for a while and was heading either towards abstentions, or to the far-right ELAM,” said Tsangaris.

“If it wasn’t for Fidias, we would have probably seen ELAM at 20%,” said Tsangaris.

He used a familiar approach towards campaigning on social media, appealing to a dissatisfied electorate.

With no political agenda, he openly said he has never voted before, and does not know how the European Parliament works. He said if he could learn to be a YouTuber, he could learn how to be an MEP.

His candidacy, announced a few months before the elections on daytime TV, paid off. He was the most popular candidate with 71,330 votes. That’s about 20,000 more than the second-most popular candidate, DISY’s Loukas Fourlas.

A reaction to inaction

The vote towards Fidias was described as a “reactionary” move by politicians and analysts on Cypriot TV.

The appeal of mainstream political parties in Cyprus has waned in recent years and voters are looking for alternatives.

The top party, DISY, saw its worst performance in EU elections ever, losing a chunk of the vote equivalent to 3%, according to Europe Elects.

The country’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, followed a similar strategy to Fidias’s in the presidential elections of 2023, but in more traditional political terms, said Tsangaris.

The message of both campaigns was that they are not linked to existing parties, he added. 

Panayiotou is a “very dynamic YouTuber”, said  pointed out Panagiotis Papachatzis, a strategic communications advisor in Athens, who advised political parties in Cyprus for elections campaigns. He has some 2.6 million subscribers on YouTube 

Papachatzis compared him to YouTuber Mr. Beast, who has 278 million subscribers. Posting videos of various adventure challenges in far-flung places, often handing out large amounts of money to winners.

Panayiotou himself won one of these challenges, managing to continuously touch a Lamborghini for 71 hours and ultimately winning  the sports car.

“The voters wanted to protest against the typically empty talk of the parties, so they chose Panayiotou’s empty talk,” said Kakouris.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh] 

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