Fidiasʼ latest interview became the main topic of the Cypriot and Greek media. And it was about Ukraine.
The conversation was recorded by British blogger and filmmaker Caolan Robertson — since 2022 he has been living in Ukraine and shooting videos about the war. He was prompted to record the interview by two things — Fidiasʼ vote against the resolution on the return of abducted Ukrainian children and his trip to Moscow during the Victory Day celebrations.
In early May, Fidias was one of three MEPs who voted against a resolution calling on Russia to return abducted Ukrainian children. After that, he and several MEPs traveled to Moscow at their own expense — to “give diplomacy a chance”. There, he met with State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
The conversation with Robertson immediately turned into an argument, because Robertson accused Phidias of spreading Russian propaganda. Phidias tried to explain his position — for example, he said that the kidnapped Ukrainian children might “not want to return to Ukraine”. And that even the aggressor needs to be talked to in order to end the war. Because Turkey (which invaded his country) is also an aggressor, but they are holding peace talks with it.
Robertsonʼs interview with Panayiotou in the European Parliament.
When Robertson asked why Fidias hadnʼt gone to Ukraine in three and a half years, he said he wanted to, but was afraid. Heʼs now trying to organize such a trip, and heʼs also planning to record an interview with Ukraineʼs former foreign minister.
"My job is to not be liked by someone. My job is to act on my beliefs," Fidias says.
A lot of people obviously like him — he is followed by 2.7 million subscribers on YouTube, half a million on Instagram, and another 200 000 on TikTok and X.
Fidias Panayiotou was born in 2000 in Cyprus in a small village near the capital Nicosia, a few kilometers from the “border” with the occupied part of the island.
After school and military service, in 2019 he began making videos about his life.
To make the filming interesting, Fidias decided to travel. In 2019, he even ended up in Kyiv, where he tasted “Roshen” chocolates, played sports at the Hydropark, rode the subway, and even “tried marijuana for the first time”. Fidias’ blogs were mostly about his adventures or pranks and challenges that he would pull on people around him.
Fidias is filming a video in the Kyiv subway.
The number of subscribers grew slowly, so Fidias moved to the United States to improve his English and meet the most popular bloggers in the world. Thatʼs how he got into the “Airrack” team — an American YouTuber Eric Decker, who filmed many popular challenges. He now has 16 million subscribers. Fidias participated in Deckerʼs videos, but also filmed his own challenges.
For his YouTube content, Fidias was apparently inspired by James Donaldson, better known as “MrBeast”, the most popular YouTuber with almost 400 million subscribers. To get his attention, Fidias filmed a challenge in which he said the word “MrBeast” a million times live. It took 12 days, but the result was that “MrBeast” invited Fidias to participate in several of his challenges.
Fidias together with blogger MrBeast.
One of Fidiasʼ most popular challenges is to hug 100 celebrities. Thatʼs how he met his idol Elon Musk. Fidias left him for last, when he had already hugged 99 people. To meet Musk, Fidias lived first near the SpaceX base, and then near the Twitter office in San Francisco — a total of several months. Every day he filmed a video about his life there and called on people to help him meet Musk. Two months later, one of his followers — a preschooler — ran into Musk at a football match in Qatar and persuaded him to meet the blogger. After some time, Fidias was contacted by Muskʼs security service, organized a meeting, and he finally completed his challenge.
Fidias tries to get Maskʼs attention so he can hug him.
X (Twitter) / «Бабель»
In early 2023, Fidias began creating more than just entertainment content. He launched a separate channel for the people of Cyprus, and also began recording podcasts. For example, Fidias decided to talk to all the candidates in last yearʼs presidential elections in Cyprus. He recorded podcasts with 12 out of 14 candidates — the two main favourites did not agree. Fidias also talked to other famous people, such as British politician Nigel Farage or former kickboxer and blogger Andrew Tate. He developed his main channel with challenges parallely.
Fidias interviews Andrew Tate.
Fidias decided to enter politics in 2024.
He informed about his decision at one of the Cypriot shows — in sneakers, shorts, a jacket and three ties. Later, Fidias did it more officially — in a suit and next to his father, a Cypriot priest. Fidias emphasized that he was running for the European Parliament as an independent candidate. And in general, he does not understand politics, but he will definitely learn. Fidias called education his priority — he wanted to cancel exams and encourage self-development. He also talked about the importance of artificial intelligence, social networks and cryptocurrencies. Other parties perceived Fidiasʼ candidacy as a joke, and his ratings before the elections were low.
His success in the elections was called the “Fidias factor”. All because he was the one who fell into the voters’ requests for new faces in politics. This trend was noticeable back in 2023, when the main favourites in the presidential elections in the country were candidates who did not run for parties. The Fidias campaign drew the attention of Cypriots to the elections to the European Parliament, which were usually not popular. If in the two previous elections the voter turnout was 43-44%, then this time it was as much as 58%.
Fidias applies to run in the European Parliament elections with his father, a local priest, April 2024.
gov.cy
Fidias did not spend money on television or outdoor advertising, but only created content for social media. He once ran 80 kilometers between two Cypriot cities to get young voters to register to vote — and that day alone, more than two thousand people did so.
Thanks to his anti-establishment rhetoric, Fidias was able to mobilize young people to come to the polls and vote for him — he received 40% of the vote among voters aged 18-24 and 28% of the vote among voters aged 25-34. With an overall result of 19% of the vote, Fidias came in third place, losing only a few percentage points to traditional Cypriot parties, which are over 50 years old.
Fidiasʼ success did not go unnoticed by many world media outlets — he was written about both in Europe and abroad. On his social networks, he published short videos about how the European Parliament works and what decisions are made there. Fidias also offers his followers to choose how to vote for him. For example, whether to support the appointment of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission.
After Fidias became an MEP, he often started mentioning the war in Ukraine in his videos.
On the one hand, he is against military and financial support for Ukraine. On the other hand, he also calls on other countries to stop military support for Russia. On the one hand, he admits that Russia is an aggressor, it invaded Ukraine and occupied its territories. On the other hand, he says that the reason for the Russian invasion in 2022 was NATO expansion.
Fidias often mentions the situation in his country, Cyprus, in the context of Ukraine. Historically, the island has been under Turkish and Greek rule, which is why the population of Cyprus is made up of them. After gaining independence from Great Britain in 1960, there were constant conflicts between Turks and Greeks, which ultimately led to the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the occupation of part of the island.
Fidias often criticizes the EU for not paying enough attention to this problem, while most of the efforts are directed at Ukraine, which is not even a member of the European Union. Moreover, the EU continues to negotiate and have relations with Turkey, while it does not have relations with Russia.
Fidias at a meeting with the Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, May 2025.
X (Twitter) / «Бабель»
Fidias has no political education (or any education) or experience in politics. He apparently borrows his views from people he podcasts with, for example, American economist Jeffrey Sachs. In a conversation with Phidias, Sachs blames NATO for the war in Ukraine, because after the collapse of the USSR and the reunification of Germany, "it promised not to expand eastward".
After Fidias was elected as an MEP, Elon Musk turned his attention to him again.
He began reposting Phidiasʼ videos and praising him in every way. Especially when Fidias criticized the European Union for "censorship".
The topic of social media regulation is one of the main topics in Phidiasʼ content. He says that in the age of social media, voters have gained the opportunity to directly control politicians. Fidias even created an app so that his audience could choose how to vote for him in the European Parliament.
And in the meantime, Fidias is trying to figure out how to fix European politicians. He even knows who ruined them — Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote in his treatise "The Statesman" that a politician should be tough, cunning, and achieve goals at any cost. Fidias would like politicians to adhere more to the views of the philosopher Aristotle, who called for working for the common good of all people.
The latest thing Fidias has come up with is how to fix voting in the European Parliament. Here is his recipe: you need to allow MEPs to submit amendments to draft laws anonymously — then the MEPs will vote, guided by their principles, and not by party guidelines.
Babel will watch the career of Fidias.