Fidias Panayiotou

Fidias Panayiotou (Φειδίας Παναγιώτου; born 10 April 2000 ), known mononymously as Fidias, is a Cypriot YouTuber and politician 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.

YouTube career
Fidias began posting videos on YouTube in 2019.

On October 8, 2022, Fidias began on a mission to hug Elon Musk after having hugged 99 other celebrities. While waiting outside Twitter's headquarters for Musk to appear almost everyday, he encouraged his followers to "spam" Elon's mother, Maye Musk, with his request, which she described as "malicious". On January 21, 2023, Elon Musk would meet and hug 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.

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.

, he had more than 2.6 million subscribers on YouTube.

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. 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."