NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) 鈥� Cypriot YouTuber and TikToker , who translated his online popularity into a meteoric political career at home and in Europe, said Monday that he鈥檒l hold onto his European Parliament seat, despite winning one in Cyprus鈥� House of Representatives.
鈥淚鈥檒l stay in the European Parliament because it would be good for the Direct Democracy party to have a European Parliament member,鈥� Fidias, who goes by his first name, told reporters before a proclamation ceremony.
鈥淲e could鈥檝e done better but we鈥檙e happy with what has happened, this is a small victory.鈥�
Fidias whipped up much speculation by being coy about his political future throughout his campaign.
It was only six months ago that Fidias, 26, founded the Direct Democracy party. He said that the party was intended to upend the established political order in Cyprus and abroad by enabling ordinary citizens to have a say in formulating party policy and declare themselves party candidates through an online application.
Direct Democracy received 5.4% of total votes in Sunday鈥檚 parliamentary election and four seats in the 56-member House. Fidias, who garnered the most votes out of all of his party鈥檚 candidates, ceded his seat to runner-up Yiannis Laouris.
Even though it鈥檚 a remarkable result for a group that eschewed the traditional way of wooing voters by outlining its policies, the result didn鈥檛 live up to Fidias鈥� own expectations. That鈥檚 because nearly their ballots for him in the June 2024 European Parliament election, even though he took no political positions, made no promises and didn’t present a program for his time in office.
鈥淚t seems now that people are hungry not for political positions, but for true people that are not lying, (but) saying the truth,鈥� he told The Associated Press in an interview shortly after the 2024 poll.
Fidias spent years boosting his popularity with outrageous video posts of him spending wads of cash in Vietnam, living a week in an airport for free, and burying himself alive for 10 days.
His online breakthrough came after he relentlessly pursued and succeeded in getting a hug from billionaire entrepreneur .
Fidias has acknowledged that his online antics had offered many Cypriot voters 鈥� who are deeply disenchanted with the perceived corruption of a party system that has operated on a favors-for-votes basis for decades 鈥� a way to express their frustrations.
Fidias has used online media as his primary tool to communicate with his supporters the inner workings of the European Parliament, the reasoning for his voting on issues as well as to answer his growing number of detractors who consider him and his trial-by-error decision-making politically infantile.
He has also courted plenty of controversy for his perceived support for negotiations with Russia over the war in Ukraine, and for casting doubt on what the International Criminal Court said was the 鈥渦nlawful deportation鈥� of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Sunday鈥檚 parliamentary election saw the ultranationalist National Popular Front, or ELAM, party make major gains, receiving nearly 11% of the vote and eight seats 鈥� up from just under 7% and four seats in the previous poll.
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