Bilun Gunes
Fidias Panayiotou, a 24-year-old Cypriot social media personality and newly elected MEP, expressed skepticism about the prospects of the informal Cyprus meeting in Geneva. While he doesn’t hold high hopes for a breakthrough, he suggested that shifting international interests might, for once, align in favour of Cypriots.
Running as an independent candidate, Mr Panayiotou has achieved this result with an estimated 17% of the vote, positioning himself behind the two dominant political parties: the conservative Democratic Rally (DISY) and the left-wing Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL). The son of a Greek Orthodox priest, he has built a robust online presence on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, amassing about 3 million subscribers since beginning his YouTube journey in 2019.
His unconventional political campaign was marked by a self-declared lack of political experience; he openly admitted to never having voted before and expressed a desire to create change after feeling disillusioned with traditional politics.
His candidacy, characterised by a commitment to speak for the youth and an emphasis on social media as his primary campaign tool, resonated particularly well with younger voters. Mr Panayiotou has labelled this electoral outcome as a “miracle” and views it as a pivotal moment not only for Cyprus but potentially for the global political landscape, urging established political figures to remember their duty to serve the people rather than their own interests.
His social media presence grew further with the content he has been creating about the workings of the European Parliament, his collaborations with political and academic figures, and with members from the Turkish Cypriot community.
Q: What are you thinking about the upcoming informal Geneva meeting? Are you expecting a resolution?
Fidias: Well, we don’t have a very good background of talks. It’s been 50 years that we – the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots are talking to solve this. So, given our track record, I need to be pessimistic.
But I’m a bit hopeful because the world is changing. The interests of countries are changing. So, maybe they have a motivation to solve this problem for their own benefit. I’m not sure, but also these natural gas and all these natural resources that we have, there is a potential for solution. I don’t have big hopes, but I’m hopeful. This is a bit different, countries’ interests are maybe aligned in our direction. I think there is a possibility.
NO PERSONAL COMMUNICATION WITH ELON MUSK
Q: You have a pre-existing connection with Elon Musk. Now there is more attention between your communication with him, since he has become a political actor in the US. Have you had any communications with him since his recent role? Will there be a political idea exchange?
Fidias: So, Elon Musk, if you are hearing this, we are trying to solve the Cyprus problem, it’s been 50 years. And a lot of people from my country and Turkish Cypriots, we want to solve the Cyprus problem and this is the time we started communication now, we have a meeting for our leaders to talk and for a potential solution.
So, if you are watching this, you can say some cool things to Trump, to bring this in his focus will be amazing, it will be good for the world because it’s been 50 years that we have this conflict and we want to live together with Turkish Cypriots, I’m a Greek Cypriot, so I think hopefully it’s the right time with all these changes in the world like for Ukraine initiative that Trump took, I think to take another big win, President Trump will be amazing. So, we are uniting and this is unexpected, it’s just an interview that she’s interviewing, but this is unexpected, hopefully you hear this message, Elon Musk and potentially Trump, we love you.
So, this is what I can do as you understand, I don’t have a personal communication with him.
“FROM PRANKS TO SOLVING PROBLEMS”
Q: It’s been almost a year since you’ve become an MEP. And how has your life changed, aside from the responsibility of becoming an MEP in the European Parliament?
Fidias: Well, it didn’t change a lot because I was challenging myself, having a team before and doing YouTube stuff, which is related to this stuff. I just changed topics in a way. From pranks to almost solving the biggest problems in the world. So, I’m trying to solve because I’m not solving. We just changed from pranks to this. Not a big change honestly.
Q: Have you made any Turkish Cypriot friends since you have become an MEP outside of content generation? Your ideas and your learnings have changed during this process as you share in your own content, have you developed any personal relations with Turkish Cypriots? Do you cross North?
Fidias: My goal was to include both communities. My goal was to be inclusive. Hopefully I achieved that.
And I achieved this not only by talking about it, but by meeting other people. I have friends. I try to hear the perspective of the Turkish people. But I feel that we’ve been very divided, the two communities, for a long time. And I think it’s time for this to change. Of course, it’s not only up to us. Turkey is there to decide a lot of things. But I think if the two communities come closer, we can increase the chances of – if we cooperate – we can increase the chances of solving the Cyprus problem.
Q: So, in your work you have a separate focus on understanding the Turkish Cypriot community more, am I correct in understanding that?
Fidias : Not only understand, I’m also trying to promote their ideas. Whenever I have a speech in the European Parliament, I don’t only talk about 1974. I also say what we did in 1963. So, I’m trying to include both sides of the story, which I think is what transparency and honesty looks like.
You understand that I’m getting a lot of hate in my Greek Cypriot community about this. It’s not the right thing to say politically. But I don’t care.
I think we need to cooperate. I think it’s time for things to change.
BOXING MATCH FOR PEACE
Q:Outside of the work that you’re doing, what do you think is necessary, beyond your power, to bring these communities together?
Fidias: Well, I don’t know, it could be a lot of things, it has been a long time, a lot of years of doing events together to meet and to exchange views. This is successful, but I think social media now can really do this. For example, what I did with the other Turkish Cypriot, we did a video together with Ibrahim. I think this sparked a lot of attention.
Things like this, symbolic in a way, things that are on social media, but I don’t know, influencers to go from one side to the other, to exchange, to understand each other, more stuff, but not in the boring way. Like new things, the new generation is interested, it shows. The old way of thinking didn’t bring us anywhere close to a solution. Different things.
I was thinking of some ideas like to break the world records together. Make some things that can unite, not divide.
I also had the idea of doing a boxing match with Ibrahim, for peace. This is the cool stuff that people are interested in. And this stuff now, they are not like, okay, let’s sit and shake hands to show that. Nobody cares. So, I’m just trying to do effective things that are in our culture and now to do them for this reason.
“I SAY WHAT I BELIEVE…”
Q : That is evident in the way that you have been chosen to be here. You said earlier that you receive negative reactions. How has the reaction been affecting you?
Fidias : Well, I don’t really care because I say what I believe. This is my responsibility as a politician to say what I believe. Truly, not politically profitable. I could just shut up, honestly, and just have as many people as there are to love me before and even more.
There are a lot of topics that don’t divide. So, I could choose different topics and not say that we need to cooperate. I’m not saying anything other than we need to cooperate and we need to forgive, all together and in the future. This is the only thing I say. I’m not saying how we are going to solve the Cyprus problem. The only thing I’m saying is we need to cooperate more and forgive.
I think I’m just promoting this, that we don’t need to be divided, and we need to learn. We need to work, love each other, cooperate, and learn the entire history, not half of the history that we learned in the South and in the North. That’s basically it.
So, if people disagree with these things, then I think it’s a problem. I didn’t say anything about the solution in Cyprus. The fact that people, even with these things are triggered is evidence that this goes so much deeper in our hearts that sometimes we don’t think logically, we think by emotion.
Voice Cyprus News-2025
