LONDON (AP) — He has no political experience. No high-profile endorsements. No party affiliation.
What Fidias Panayiotou does have are 2.6 million followers on YouTube and more on TikTok. And now he has won a seat in the European Parliament representing Cyprus, one of several unusual candidates who launched improbable campaigns only to snag membership in the 720-seat legislature.
“I wasn’t planning on voting, but since I’ve been seeing you on TikTok, I’ll vote for you,” said a driver Panayioutou stops, interviews and posts about.
Social media played an outsized role in the victories of a few candidates, prompting chatter in the political classes about its apparent role as an equalizer for unknown hopefuls as voters in dozens of democracies go to the polls this year, including in Britain, France and the United States.
Voters in the parliament’s 27 countries in recent days also elected candidates who are in prison, have been kicked out of their delegation and withdrew from the election only to win seats, anyway.
Here’s a closer look at unusual candidates-turned-MEPs — members of the European Parliament, representing some 400 million eligible voters.
Cyprus
Panayiotou’s initial claim to fame was a hug he gave to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, plus an assortment of humorous videos. His election, fueled only by his popularity on social media posts, shook up the island nation’s political class in what many saw as a snub to deep-rooted party culture.
Over 50 countries go to the polls in 2024
The 24-year-old who goes only by his first name, Fidias, won almost a fifth of the votes in Sunday’s election, placing him third behind traditional party candidates of the center-right DISY party and the communist-rooted AKEL. It’s a first in a country where the mighty political parties have long earned iron-clad loyalty by meting out favors.
AKEL Secretary-General Stefanos Stefanou lamented the outcome, which he called a “new reality in which citizens opt for non-politics as a political choice” to register their disenchantment with the country’s political culture.
Spain
Armed with a pair of social media accounts and staunch anti-immigrant discourse, a social media influencer rocked Spain’s far right by snatching up three of the country’s 61 seats in the European Parliament.
The driver was a national-populist figure known by the pen name of Alvise…