Musk SILENCED Them With THIS Point | Fidias Panayiotou EXCLUSIVE on CORRUPTION OF EUROPE - SF 427
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Ex-Youtube Prankster 24 year old Fidias Panayiotou made a drastic career change when he moved to become a politician to winning the election to becoming a member of Parliament for the European Union. He has since used his platform to expose corruption and highlight the processes that take place as part of the Parliament. Not to mention, he camped outside Musk’s X headquarters for 3 months just to get a hug. Join us for an insightful and educational discussion exposing the truth of the bureaucratic European parliamentary system! Remember to subscribe.
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Hello there you awakening wonders Thanks for joining me for a very special edition of Stay Free with Russell Brand today because Phidias is with me.
Hey Phidias!
If you've not heard of Phidias yet you're not using social media properly because this might be the most dangerous and innovative guest that I could have brought on if what you're interested in is political disruption.
Fidius has infiltrated, using social media, charisma, charm and common sense, one of the most powerful bureaucratic institutions in the world, the European Parliament.
And from inside, has exposed, if not corruption, the peculiar way that it works.
Whether that's Ursula von der Leyen and her apparent institutional power, You might know Ursula von der Leyen from her private text messages to Albert Baller, where she did significant deals with Pfizer without thinking to consult the public, the people that pay her wages.
Without Elon Musk's patronage, maybe Fidesz wouldn't have reached the extraordinary positions he's reached now.
But let's just unpack some of his success, some of his power, and how popular politics through social media might be about to change the world forever.
Ursula von der Leyen is trying to become again the President of the European Commission, which is the most important political position in the European Union.
I am one of the 720 members of the European Parliament and soon we are going to approve her or not.
I decided that I would put a poll on my social media and you guys will decide if you want me to vote for her or against her.
Stay tuned because through me now you have a voice for the future of Europe.
Man, you're very good on camera as well.
You are direct and you are clear.
Years ago, when reality TV came about and there were lots of shows about voting for bands or pop stars, I thought, how long before this technology gets deployed politically?
And of course, we could be waiting a very long time for it to be deployed politically, because if you did use that technology, you'd be able to have referenda and mandates and the will of the people politically represented.
But you are actually the first person I've ever seen Using political power in that way and of course it's come to the attention of Elon Musk.
It's pretty important that his patronage has been offered to you.
That's one of the things I suppose that means that you now have a strong power base and are going to continue to have quite a lot of impact I imagine.
Yes, it's crazy for me to see the most powerful person in the world to say he has the right super important decision.
It's the coolest thing that could happen in my life.
It's really mental.
It's mental and it's exciting.
It gives me a lot of leverage, a lot of power, it gives me a lot of opportunities.
So, Elon, thank you for making this gift.
I can't believe how responsibly you're using that power though because this if imagine if this was something that was being made by 60 Minutes in America or a serious Channel 4 documentary in the UK this would be regarded as the kind of journalism that's required but this is beyond journalism this is journalism meets politics have a look at this How much money do I make as a member of the European Parliament?
Well, it's a lot, so let's start with my salary.
I get €8,000 a month in my pocket, and in addition to that, every working day I come here in the Parliament and sign, I get another €350, which is a bit strange.
Apart from that, I have €30,000 per month for the salaries of my team.
Also, I can have an office in my country and they give me €5,000 a month for that.
In addition to all the previous stuff, I have another €4,000 a month to promote my work that I'm doing here in the Parliament.
Another cool expense, I'm allowed to use €10,000 a month to bring people here in the Parliament for a few days to meet and understand what we are doing here.
In addition to all this money, I get some benefits, like having a driver here in Brussels to drive me around, and also business class tickets to fly back to my country.
And I'm curious to hear if you think we are overpaid or underpaid.
Let me know in the comments.
Rafidius, how did that poll go?
Well, people think that we're overpaid.
But it's very interesting because I can do journalism also from the inside and say the truth and also be a politician, which is very interesting.
I think I have a big responsibility, huge responsibility.
What I'm really struck by is that you are changing politics in a way that very deliberate activists are probably unable to.
I'll just tell you what I mean.
Like the fact that you do polls online where you allow your constituents or your followers or supporters or whatever's the correct thing to call them now to determine what you do.
For me it feels like a very pure expression of politics where people in elected positions are responding directly to a mandate, not responding to a centralized authority, but responding to the people they were elected to represent.
Are you aware how, I see that on your shirt you have hashtag new politics, are you aware of how innovative what you are doing is?
I'm not sure if I'm aware of it.
Maybe.
But I want to start and say I apologize, ladies and gentlemen, for my accent.
It's a bit difficult for you to understand, but we're going to get through this together.
But yeah, in Cyprus, this is the biggest thing that happened in politics ever.
Like, since Cyprus is a democracy, since 1960, this is the coolest thing that happened.
And I got more votes as an independent than All the parties.
It's crazy.
I don't believe it myself.
I got 20% of the votes and it's very weird.
But how it happened, I wanted to I heard Elon Musk saying if you don't see the change that you want around the world, become the change.
I was like, fuck the politics in Cyprus.
They're assholes.
They're just caring about themselves and their party and power.
So I want to become the change.
And me, I believe that I will not get elected.
Because if you have a straight mind, you are going to understand that there is no chance.
But I did it anyway because it was important enough to do it.
I started slowly, slowly, and I didn't have any backing, any money, just the power of social media.
And I was a successful YouTuber in the United States.
I had two and a half million subscribers.
But I went back to Cyprus and people knew me there, but I had not a lot of followers, not strong social media there.
But slowly, slowly, after five months of campaigning, my social media in Cyprus became stronger than the TV stations.
So we kind of saw a bit of different politics and like it's the first time that this is happening I think in the world just one person to achieve to interrupt the whole political system and change politics as we know it.
The establishment must be and should be I forgot to say I love you.
I love you.
I love you already because I've been following you on YouTube and on X. Thank you for saying I love you.
That makes me feel so relaxed.
Thank you.
I've been following you on YouTube and on X and I'm very excited to try and understand is this an anomaly?
Something that just happens once?
Or is this potentially the new face of politics?
Meaning that various independent candidates could rise up in districts everywhere and represent their constituents in the way that you are, using technology to derive direct mandate on almost every issue.
Because, like, our viewers will be familiar with Ursula von der Leyen.
Ursula von der Leyen is of course the... It's my boss!
Tell us a little bit about Ursula von der Leyen for our viewers.
So Ursula von der Leyen is the High Commissioner in Europe.
So basically we have the Commission in the European Parliament and it's a bit complicated how Europe works but it's basically the head of Europe, Ursula von der Leyen.
So I put a poll on my social media because I'm trying to As powerful I was in Cyprus with the social media, I tried to become similar, have similar power in the parliament as well with social media.
Because when you have social media, people, you have leverage for people to hear you, for you to have meetings, for people, I don't know, to afraid or to vote what you want.
So I'm trying to do this, have this leverage in the parliament as well.
But I put a poll in my social media.
People, what do you want me to vote?
Vote yes for Ursula von der Leyen or no?
And like 80% of the viewers from Cyprus, from around the world, they said out of 300,000 votes, they said that they don't want her.
And she still got elected.
So I find this a bit strange, to be honest, that people of Europe actually don't want her to be the High Commissioner and she still got elected.
So yeah.
I suppose people will be snobs.
You know, people will look down on you.
One, because Cyprus is a small territory.
Two, because you are young.
Also, you have emerged from social media.
But just in the example you've given us there, you are talking about very powerful mandates where hundreds of thousands of people are being polled and asked what they want.
And what they want, our viewers won't be surprised to learn, is at odds Yes, and this I think is true in the EU where you are a member of the European Parliament but this is true in American politics and British politics and it actually I suppose is a demonstration of the sense that many people have that exist in your space and our space and and the connections that come from the two areas where we work that
Politicians and leaders of institutions do not work for the people, they either work for the institutions themselves and those institutions have been corporatized and co-opted by power that is not always easy to understand but can perhaps be best understood as maybe financial power, the power of global corporations, just being one example.
Because people sense that mismatch, that the parties are not serving them, and that's why they voted for me.
And I think you ask, are we going to see more of this shit in the future like me?
So I think yes, because now social media gives power to the people.
And we're going to probably see more independent people running and actually getting elected.
But the system, it doesn't work for independent people yet.
So, for example, in the parliament, I'm independent, one member out of the 720, and there is 33 other independent, and we don't have a lot of power and we're discriminated.
So the system yet is not ready for a lot of power for the independent people.
But I think slowly, slowly, as more and more will get elected, I will try myself to give a little bit more space and more freedom and give more justice to the independent and get more rights, let's say, in the parliament.
But yeah, I think this will be kind of the future.
And you're talking more About direct democracy, which is very interesting.
Like, you know, I feel that I know kind of what people need and want from social media.
I put a video and I have hundreds of comments, thousands of comments, and I get the sense of the people.
So this is kind of very important.
Like, you need to be the voice of the people.
This is kind of representative democracy.
So I think we are the ones that can do this because the parties, I don't know, they don't have the mechanism, they don't have Or maybe the parties can become cool, hopefully.
What you have in the way that you're communicating is fascinating as well because say when I think about independent political figures that are popular nowadays, say Bobby Kennedy.
Who came from a really maligned and marginal space, anti-vaccines, anti-big pharma, environmental lawyer, was a very, very controversial figure in mainstream media that operates as a gatekeeper to prevent independent figures gaining popularity.
Or if I think of British figures like Tommy Robinson, he's very strongly associated with
British nationalism, but also say concern or even depending on whether you like him
or not prejudice against Muslim communities.
You know, people would see that differently depending on where they were politically.
But what I'm fascinated about you, Fidez, is that you are anti-establishment.
Just, I'm anti-establishment.
Not, I think that you should do this, I think that you should do that, I believe in this.
You are actually doing something that I think is fascinating for a politician.
Asking, what do you want?
What do you want?
And I think that that might be a really interesting way of conducting politics.
One, because it will Because people do want different things and that leads to decentralization.
I've just come from the Bitcoin conference and it seems to me, and I don't know very
much about Bitcoin, I know that you have spoken about it some, that what Bitcoin is, is by
its nature is transparent because of the way that you can observe the nature of the transactions
and it is decentralized.
There is no central institution or bank that is controlling the currency.
And we're already seeing immediate decentralization.
You a popular YouTuber, me, you have then taken the step that I think terrifies them
I'm saying I'm going to use the power I've got that is derived from the...
By the way, they are fucking terrified in my country, the parties.
Imagine, a kid, 24 years old, they are like 50 years of organizations, and I got more votes combined.
So they are confused.
What is the future?
We need to adjust.
We are afraid.
So it's very interesting.
Sorry for interrupting.
No, it's good.
We're here to listen to you.
We're here to listen to you.
Thank you for saying, but like, it just shows that new mandates, new movements can be formed.
But not only that, it's not like you're sort of very pro this religious idea or pro that political idea.
All you're actually saying is I will be transparent.
Like I loved your video where you said they give me $300 a day expenses.
They give me this salary.
If I get $60,000 ladies and gentlemen, when you are a politician a month, But the 15,000 is for yourself and the rest is for you to spend to have a team and all this stuff.
Interesting fact.
Yeah, this kind of transparency is, I think, terrifying for them as well.
I think that they like these institutions to be preserved and controlled.
A political figure like Ursula von der Leyen, who did deals by text message with Pfizer, For millions and millions of vaccines that were later not used, whose husband works for a big pharma company that benefited from those corporations and those kind of deals, they don't want people knowing what's going on in there.
They don't want 25-year-old kids from Cyprus that have more of an idea of what the Populare, the population, believe in than they do and are much more interested in demonstrating, representing the views of those people than they are.
These people are, it seems to me, about elitism, establishment control, will tell you what to
do. We will give you limited options and you will choose from the limited options. It seems that
you are coming from an opposite perspective and it makes me curious about is that
deliberate?
The way you've derived, arrived at this place of like, I'll do whatever you want.
Do you want, because I remember you did a poll on whether or not you would join the Green Party or remain independent.
You just ask your audience, what do you want me to do?
This for me is so innovative and so, and yet somehow so obvious, but no one's done it before.
No one's gotten into a position to do it.
Phidias, before you answer that question, we're going to leave YouTube now because if you start talking about radical information that could bring down the government, that could collapse all of these institutions and interconnected corporate networks that dominate and control, they're not going to broadcast that, are they?
We'll be streaming.
Click the link in the description to join us at our home on Rumble.
See you there in a second.
People love to participate in decision making.
Some people think that I'm immature and I'm just giving the power.
I don't have an opinion.
But I think, let's say, when we have more, I think, independent in the future, I think I trust more an independent critical thinker than any party that will do his adjustment with his team.
He will say, OK, we need to vote about these things.
These are the topics that we are interested in.
So I trust more him than any other.
And if I know his background and what he believes and all this stuff, But I managed to get elected in my country's very strange, ladies and gentlemen, without saying anything about my political positions.
I was just saying about education that it sucks.
And people still saw the authenticity and that I'm honest about what I'm saying and still voted for me.
So people maybe don't need What we think that, what politicians think they want for people, for them to vote for them.
So I think that what people want to vote for you is changing as well, slowly, slowly.
You mean that people might not want the, for all I know this might be a Greek word, demagogues that tell people what to do and what to think, people might want a open representative who says what do you want? I'll do
what you want because even in a country like mine and a politician like Kirstarma whilst I would
say that these are ultimately authoritarian politicians who look for ways to legislate and control
usually by saying this will keep you safe they also it's it's commonly understood that politicians
these days are continually having focus groups and running polls and what is it we need to
say?
What is it we need to say?
They have their own version of appeasing the electorate or appealing to voters usually in order to get a mandate so that they can then serve real global corporatist power.
But what you're saying is, is that you listen and involve in a dialogue with the electorate and then demonstrate their will.
But not always.
I think because a lot of the times the people don't have as much information as you have about the topic.
So I think this should be in balance.
For example, an important decision, everyone knows she founded Lions.
She's been for five years.
That is a decision.
Everyone knows kind of the Green Party and the House Party.
I think people are educated to get these decisions and they're clever enough to make wise decisions about this stuff. But about the small
details about these technical things, I think I don't, I will not put polls about everything. I will, I
form a team and because I understand that I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I can't,
so you are not surprised.
But this is what Socrates said, self-awareness is the most important thing.
So I put clever people around me, I hear them talk and we debate about stuff and then we decide about what and how to vote.
But I think Politics is a black box.
It's like nobody knows how it's functioning and all this stuff.
And my goal is to make this reveal what is happening inside.
And I think just by doing, and also nobody in Europe feel European.
They don't understand how Europe works.
It's very complicated.
If I leave, I don't think that I have the most power, to be honest, as a member of the European Parliament to change the world, but I think doing this with social media and showing to the world what is happening and how Europe works and what is this, open the black box for everyone, I think that will be my biggest contribution for the next five years.
I like your metaphor of the black box because I think that media is also a black box.
People don't know what the relationships are between commercial partners and political influencers.
For example, when the Twitterphile stories came out and we found how much the CIA And the FBI, we're inside social media sites, and we all know that there have been operations for many years, certainly since the 60s, 50s, if you want to talk about McCarthyism or Operation Mockingbird or MKUltra, where there is penetration of media organizations by the deep state to control information.
So just by being revealing about media, Or being revealing about the European Parliament or being revealing about the judiciary.
You're starting to expose people to new information and I think what's important about that, because I recognise your humility, oh I'm not the most intelligent person in the world, but I think a lot of people have become tired of being talked down to.
I'm told you cannot participate in politics and what you have shown is people actually do want to participate in politics.
People do want to to a degree.
They won't.
And you know, I was getting the most views in my country for a six month period because people love politics in a cool way, not in a boring way.
And I think all these videos that I'm making, they're getting millions of views every single video that I'm making in the parliament.
So people love this shit.
They love to understand this and know politics, but not in a boring way.
Because when politicians talk, Most of the times you don't understand what they're saying.
Yeah.
It's like maybe you understand because you are clever, but like, uh, most of the normal people don't understand anything for me.
It's not fun.
It's boring.
So you don't want to listen.
So you assume they're clever and they're doing their job, but this is not the case.
If they were clever, they're going to speak in a In a simple way, this is how information is transmitted.
So, I don't know.
I think it's very interesting how the world will look in the future and, you know, a very good case study would be my country.
We'll have elections again, about the parliament elections in two years.
The national elections.
National elections, like, hopefully it will become kind of a circus as well.
Like, YouTubers are putting, TikTokers are putting, because they got inspired from me, because I was a phenomenon that day.
And we're going to see, and we're going to follow closely, follow what will happen in my country.
But also, to be honest, I'm overwhelmed.
You understand how is it for a kid 24 years old like me to receive most votes from all the parties in Cyprus.
So it's like, how much Power but also responsibility comes with Cyprus.
For example, I can do stuff in Cyprus.
I can move the needle.
It's just me and two or three friends of mine.
It's weird to have all this power but hopefully I will make a lot of mistakes.
Hopefully I will use it the right way.
What it makes me realize is the way that power hierarchies operate is open for debate and disruption.
Why should we assume when we look at a political figure like Boris Johnson or Joe Biden or Kamala Harris that these people should have power but you shouldn't have power, I shouldn't have power, ordinary people Watching this, participating in this with us, shouldn't have power.
What you've demonstrated is, if we are truly to create systems of government that are based on consensus and conversation, then you need a different skill set.
And the institutions and establishment institutions that call themselves democracy now, are about preservation of power.
Not the exercise of the electorate.
They're not about this is what people seem to want.
They're about how do we appease people, distract people, control people, while engaging in a conversation, pretending they are getting what they want.
Phineas, will you tell me, mate, that a minute ago you talked about how there are some issues where you require consultation and that seems obvious.
There are complex matters from anything from defence to economics.
There is, you know, such a thing as learning and as epistemology and knowledge and understanding and experience.
All these things are important.
I'm not being dismissive in my love of populism.
How do you decide which issues require consulting on, and how have you decided and chosen the people that you consult with?
Okay, interesting.
By the way, how the European Parliament works is like 20 committees, and you choose what committees to go in.
You're about education, about this, and you can choose two, three committees to be in.
So you don't need to be experts in everything, but you need to vote.
for everything. So you need to kind of pay attention to what is happening in all the committees,
but you need to contribute in too. So that, so I chose the stuff that I know kind of. I chose to,
there is one petition, so kind of everyone in Europe can kind of apply their ideas for the
parliament to make them in reality.
So I will use, so we get a lot of requests and we see what we like and we, so I thought that being a YouTuber and having millions of views, I will promote this so everyone in Europe will apply their ideas for us to do them in the Parliament.
So that's why I chose that one.
So I chose something that I can contribute in.
And I'm sure I will contribute more than all the other MPs because of my power of social media.
The other thing that I chose to contribute is culture.
So it's about education and culture.
And what is media?
It's culture.
And I'm very good at social media and all this stuff.
And also education.
I hate the educational system.
I think it kills creativity.
And there should be a lot more innovative ways to do it.
So I chose some topics that I'm familiar with.
The second thing.
I'm 24 years old, but I had a lot of years of experience on being a businessman because I'm a successful YouTuber for five, six years.
Now I'm doing YouTube.
I hire people.
I understand how business works.
So I put jobs and I found other people that work in the parliament for 20 years and I hired them.
I like their ideas.
I have my high school teacher, a physics teacher.
I think she's the smartest person in the world.
Your teacher works for you now as an advisor?
Yes, so because in politics also I think because I'm naive a lot of the times I need people that take care of me that there is a nasty game so I need people that they have my back so I needed a person that knows me and he cares about me as well so but yeah this is kind of how I form a team and it's you know It's not that difficult.
It's been 35, it's been two months now that I'm in the Parliament, and I'm sure because a lot of the politicians, it's funny, but it's funny how the work works.
It's like they are afraid, the new members of the Parliament, they are afraid to ask questions.
They are like, oh, they are like, oh, I know how to do it.
In two months, I learned more stuff than any member of the European Parliament because I'm asking.
How is this done?
I asked like millions of questions.
I had meetings with 80 other MEPs.
So yes, I'm immature and yes, I'm young, but I have hunger for learning.
And as Elon Musk said, we're going to quote a lot of times Elon Musk in this podcast.
Don't be afraid to jump into new arenas.
You can learn them.
I think in two years, in one year, I will be a very effective politician because I have the hunger to learn.
I'm not afraid to ask.
I'm excited.
I'm confident about this stuff.
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Okay, back to the content.
The combination of humility and confidence is pretty powerful actually because it means that you're not assuming that you know but you are willing to ask for new information.
I didn't know of course because I'd never sought to ask or inquire or learn that the way that the European Parliament works is that there are 20 committees and you can elect to be in two or three of them but you vote across all of those committees.
I wonder if during that time you have sensed A way that an agenda is being pushed.
The parties are so fucking powerful and I don't like this because, for example, you know the 720 MEPs, they are in parties.
33 of them, they are independent like me.
So basically, because they are bored, or let's not say bored, but the way that system works, is you are not following the 20 committees you are only following your three committees and your party tells you what to vote on the others so the parties have so much power they are just whatever they want to do and if one party do an alliance the big party uh do a social and democrats with EPP which is the two biggest parties if they do an alliance together they can do whatever they want in the parliament so it's like they are doing
Whatever they want.
I cannot stop them, ladies and gentlemen.
Hopefully in five years we can.
You are just one man.
You are just one humble Cypriot man.
I'm here saying what has happened.
This is information from the inside.
This is how it's operating.
And hopefully we can understand it and slowly, slowly we can change it.
So when you say that two parties are able to dominate an entire political process this is something that all of us are familiar with from our national politics.
We know that there are one or two parties in most European and North American and presumably other nations that are able to dominate politics and when there isn't peculiar alliances get formed to ensure that centralized power is preserved and we Operate under the assumption and sometimes the evident understanding that these political parties are funded controlled Institutionally influenced in ways that mean that even the individuals within that party in fact it was there I mean fellow countrymen in terms of the Greek islands Yanis Varoufakis who first told me after Syriza in a similarly popular move won the elections after 2008 in Greece I don't know how Greek and Cypriot politics aligned to tell you the truth
Not very, but we're very good friends.
I think they're our best allies.
He told me that after they won the elections in Greece to oppose the paying back of huge
bank loans that had been contributory to the crash in 2008, and they'd been elected with
a mandate to not pay back those loans, to renege on them loans, that the EU called them
in and said, you are paying back those loans or you're going to be in some serious, serious
trouble.
And that Yanis Varoufakis was the second person in charge of the party.
The dude that was in charge of the party went, OK, no problem, and just forgot about the
mandate that he'd got from the Greek people.
And Yanis Varoufakis left the party.
He said that he realized that even the powerful person that he was talking to at the EU didn't
have any real power because the system is what's powerful.
And if you try to rebuke, repudiate or oppose that system, the system will get rid of you
and bring someone else in who will do what they are told.
But what social media could create is a situation where you are an independent candidate in one constituency, then there are other independent candidates that have a loose alliance built on a mandate derived from the people that can be used to oppose this kind of central power, couldn't it?
Hopefully in the next 10 years, I think some stuff will happen like that.
Hopefully.
Can you imagine how hard media and establishment and political institutions are going to work to prevent that happening?
The kind of smearing, attacks, takedowns?
I see this a bit in my country as well.
Now, there is, for example, I did some Stupid thing, let's say, in my country and all the media now show.
Fidias is immature, he's doing this, he's... Because they never want another person to get re-elected.
So they are going to use all the... Also maybe they are using for clicks and for them to make money because my name sells and stuff.
So I'm not sure if they are doing it strategically.
I'm not sure if they are clever enough to do it strategically to us.
Do you?
to harm me. But yeah, I think they are going to work very hard. And it's a tough position
to be as well because I get a lot of criticism.
Do you? What like?
A lot of criticism because people like, especially in my country, like I was the most voted person
but still with 20% of the vote.
Another 80% didn't vote for me.
So they are angry that we elected a young, mature kid.
So they are not sure.
Also, you need to understand a bit as well, my position is like, I get more views than I am Cyprus.
You understand?
I'm the face of Cyprus.
The other MEPs, nobody knows them in the parliament.
I'm the most famous MEP.
It's a very difficult position to be.
I'm scared to not screw these things up.
They must hate you.
It's such an extraordinary thing.
We're just talking about the phenomenon.
I love everyone in the world.
I don't take anything personally.
I think criticism online is an amazing thing because Imagine if there is no criticism, the world would be boring.
It would be weird for 1 million views and like zero hate comments.
Come on, it's beautiful.
The online world is beautiful.
But I think they are a bit jealous, like for a lot of them, like for a... We We went to study in the university, we went to do this, and this kid, we tried for years to get elected, we did this, and this kid, like, everyone is their dream to become, their son to become, like, and they see me, like, I'd never studied in a university, and it's like, they see me getting this honor, it's like, they're like, they're kind of a bit jealous sometimes.
Tell me how you did it.
Tell me what you did in Cypress to win this election.
I understand that you spoke to other candidates and tell me that do you truly believe that if you could do it other people could do it?
Could I do it?
Could I run for a political position in this country like Mayor of London or for a Member of Parliament?
Could anyone who has a large social media following and cares about politics and reaching people potentially be I don't think everyone can do it with the power of social media, because you need to understand that what we are online, we are products.
I don't think everyone can do it with the power of social media.
Because you need to understand that what we are online, we are products.
I'm a good product, you are a good product, so you need, you're selling, people like to
listen to you.
So you need to have this skill first, to be a good product.
Maybe you can develop it slowly, maybe you need a lot of charisma and all this stuff.
So not everyone.
But when you are a good product, and with the exposure of social media, because social media is just a magnifying glass to everyone who you really are.
So when you have these two combinations, I think yes.
I think it's very exciting!
New politics!
Hope!
Hope!
Because you're taking a power that... Either way, you see it all the time now.
Trump is on TikTok.
Kamala Harris is on TikTok.
They are spending so much time.
So we see that they even understand it.
It became kind of their priority of their campaign.
So we see that everyone understood the power of social media.
Well, it's like Bitcoin.
You know, Bitcoin, first of all, they say, this is bad.
Shut Bitcoin down.
Then they set up their own central currencies.
And the same with TikTok.
TikTok is bad.
We need to shut it down.
And they're still trying to shut it down in America, not to protect people, but because they recognize this is a tool for communication that could ultimately transfer from cultural power to political power.
People could build big audiences and then say, we want you to vote for me on this.
But that's terrifying to them.
If you just take one example, the way that Kamala Harris By the way, TikTok got me elected, by the way.
You think TikTok more than YouTube?
I'd love to follow up on that.
But I just want to ask you about this.
An establishment politician like Kamala Harris, when the Obamas give her their endorsement, they make a TikTok-style video.
It's not authentic to receive the call from the Obamas.
Oh, hello, Michelle. Hello, Barack. Yeah. Oh, I'm so happy to get your endorsement.
That is the recognition that TikTok now determines the outcome of elections.
As you say, establishment power has had to adapt to it.
And why for only politicians to use it?
We the people can use it as well for this.
Yeah I think well Elon Musk videos talks a lot doesn't he about that's what people hate they hate that on X anybody is in the same category that a journalist that's worked for a long time for an establishment newspaper or established celebrity will can be overtaken by someone you know in your case from
cyprus who's just deciding to make content that's obviously resonating with people then transfer that
power to uh to bureaucratic and political uh power it's pretty fascinating mate can you
tell me the first part of my little question there was how did you do it what how did the
process begin from uh oh you're a good podcaster you remember the question how did i do it um i i
don't think it's a rocket science but you know when you are on social media and you are doing
this stuff is like the the people are paving kind of your path
So you upload a video, people like it, and then you upload other people, people don't like another video, people don't like it and they have hard criticism, so you do more of what works.
So a lot of trial and error can actually pave you the path To be elected.
So sometimes, this is true, everyone was asking me to say positions about a difficult topic that we struggle in Cyprus.
And I went and made a video about a position.
I believe we need to do this.
And then people were angry.
So I stopped saying any positions.
So I kind of went against the system.
It was just following what people like.
This is what got me elected.
I will tell you, A very funny story.
So, at some point, we started having some momentum and the polls showed us after so much time, three weeks before the elections, that we actually have 5% of the vote.
They were wrong, we got 20%, but they showed us that we have 5%.
and then the politicians started paying attention they were asked in the panels and they were saying bad things about me they were saying he's immature he's a politic he doesn't understand politics and we were cutting this thing because when you are a person in your straight mind you understand when you are attacking a 24 year old kid that just He tries to help, he's making politics cool.
Also I did some very helpful things for Cyprus.
For example, you are not able to register to vote like UK and you need to register to vote.
So I broke the world record in Cyprus of people getting registered to vote.
So people were like, he's doing good.
He's not like, and then the politicians were attacking me and I was cutting the clips of them attacking me.
I was just uploading my social media, them saying bad things about me.
And then this caught fire.
And like, this is kind of what I'm saying, people are paving the road.
I understood, I put it, and then how Another 10, 20 people said bad things about me and I put them on my social media and these people were like, why are you attacking him?
It's like choosing a team that went in my team because I'm like honest and all this stuff.
So I think this is the way that we got elected, just by trial and error and letting the opinion of the people pave us the road.
Yeah, you used your intelligence to observe how people were responding.
Social media intelligence, not intelligence.
Come on.
I suppose though that that's, you know what?
Populism is perhaps the biggest political issue of our time.
Like the Brexit movement was populist in Europe.
Podemos in Spain.
Syriza in Greece.
Trump.
These are forms of populism.
And I suppose what populism is being condemned, you know, this is, you know, reaching the people, caring about the people, listening to the people.
It's cynical and people kind of don't like it and condemn it and associate it with a lot of negative ideas.
But when someone like you who is very open and optimistic and clearly, plainly, transparently populist, it shows the power of listening and directing.
Is it a bad thing to be a populist and like make people care about politics?
Are you really populist?
Like millions of people care about politics because of you.
It's like, I think that's the most political move that you can do.
It's like, I don't think it's a bad thing.
And like making things that people want and care, I think it's just doing what people tell you actually to do.
You can say whatever you want people, I think this is smart to do.
If people will hate me saying my positions and it's a campaign, Well, I would not say my position.
I'm not dumb.
Everybody says that the world needs to change.
The left, the right, Europe, America.
Everyone reckon, you know, if you're a person that's concerned about climate change or if you're a person that's concerned about war, everyone thinks the world has to change.
And then when people do something innovative and different that might bring about change, they try to strangle that.
Both sides.
It's normal.
I think hesitation to innovation is normal.
Hesitation to innovation you think is normal.
Can you tell me, mate, how you...
By the way, guys, do you notice that he's speaking a lot slower today?
It's because of me.
Maybe I need to do more shows with you and calm right down.
When you were doing YouTube in America before going to Cyprus, if I understand correctly... I think it's an important point that you mentioned.
Guys, OK, I'm presenting here that I'm just a stupid person that doesn't understand anything.
OK, I had a bit of a success background.
I was a Navy SEAL in my country.
I finished Navy SEAL school.
So that's one of the reasons that people trusted me as well.
I did a lot of difficult challenges in my life.
I didn't eat food for 30 days.
I ran a half marathon barefoot on the snow.
I traveled to 50 countries.
I traveled to 10 countries with no money.
So I was doing a lot of things for me.
Also, I was doing them for content, for YouTube videos, but it was real.
The Navy Seal, it was not for content.
I needed to go to the army in Cyprus and I chose the hardest part.
So, okay, all this stuff, and also I'm a successful businessman because as a YouTuber with 2.5 million subscribers, you make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, okay, all this...
And the stuff that I told you, it was a combination of me getting elected.
People saw, okay, he's not completely stupid.
Plainly.
So, but your audience were initially in the United States.
You were doing these challenges like... All over the world, but yes.
But your audience were American.
Yeah, yeah.
Can you tell me, how did you first come to the attention of Elon Musk?
And how has the relationship with Elon Musk changed?
And how has it impacted your success?
OK.
A topic close to my heart.
I love Elon Musk.
I think Elon Musk was kind of my education, to be honest, as a young person.
When I was 15, 16, I was watching his videos and it was how he said about history is important, philosophy is important.
And I was like studying all these topics because for Elon Musk to say this, it must be important.
So it was a big part.
Also, when I I became a YouTuber and had 1 million subscribers.
I was like, I want to meet this guy.
My job is to do stupid things on the Internet.
So I stayed three months outside SpaceX until he agreed to give me a hug.
I was making every day a video.
This is day one, day two, day three.
It was very difficult for me.
I was sleeping in my sleeping bag outside SpaceX.
Everyone was rejecting me.
No sign of him signing me.
All the guards, everyone was saying it will not happen, give up and all this stuff.
But slowly, slowly we got 500 million views in total.
Across the platforms of my daily series of doing all this stuff and at the end after three months Some kids taught him in the World Cup to hug me and he agreed to hug me So I went and hugged him.
It was a pleasure.
I was delighted happy person, but he thought that I was weird probably This fucking scumbag is outside waiting what he wants.
Is he something?
He will ask me for something.
I didn't ask him for anything.
I just hugged him I took a video for my YouTube channel and left and now After I did this in Cyprus, he saw kind of the documentary that we did and then he was confused probably.
Oh, he's not completely stupid.
about me and he was like oh that's interesting and probably that's uh he liked the documentary
and he reposted it on uh his account which is crazy for probably that's why we are here because
he reposted it so and he got like 60 million view uh views on my documentary that talks about how
we did this in cyprus and also it's very beautiful like you see for a kid like me that is his role
model kind of to be able to for him to repose the thing that was like wow wow i love it and he
reposted some other uh of the things that i am doing about the parliament so it's very cool i
never spoke again with him i just love him platonic love like we say i
I don't need anything from him.
It's just cool to see.
It gives a lot of leverage, a lot more legitimation, a lot more everything.
It helped a lot.
Yes, so out of a kind of very organic YouTube item of I'll just wait here till I hug Elon Musk,
you have created a relationship and subsequently he has seen the type of work that you're doing. In a way,
it's a sort of, you know, I'm obviously I've been working in this space now having been in ordinary
institutions of Hollywood or whatever previous to this and I see the type of people that become successful whether it's
you or George Janko or or Logan Paul, or Mr. Beast,
like the people that become stars.
But what's also interesting is the areas that people explore.
Some people will explore spirituality, Christianity like George Janko.
Other people, sport, say, like Logan Paul, but very much lifestyle, and Mr. Beast, who's sort of in the old days would have been like a sort of a great television innovator, who I can think of British equivalents of, but not necessarily American equivalents of.
People who understand media, who understand, oh I understand what social media, YouTube, TikTok, you name a platform, I know what they require.
What's fascinating is the The idea that this power, popularity and understanding can be transferred to politics.
And I feel like... And that's what we saw with Mike Condon.
Yeah.
That's kind of... Yeah, that's frightening, I think.
We're going to see Logan Paul president, Mr. Bridge president, who knows?
And I think it's interesting.
Because I know these people, they are more honest than the regular politicians that we have.
And I trust them more too.
But with a lot of learning, with them not becoming immediately president, with getting some positions.
And it's very interesting.
We're going to see a lot of this, I think.
Because a lot of people get pulled into commerce just because of the way the world works.
I'm sure you have sponsorship deals and do ad reads and the kind of things that I do as well in order to monetize what we do for a living.
And we saw the absolute conversion here of brand.
Let's say I convinced 20% of my country to go and vote for me.
So social media can convert.
Yeah, that's real power.
That's a power that's, I think, pretty frightening.
But it seems because, and I wonder what this is as a result of, and sort of the thing that I'm focusing on, is your military service.
Because when you were a Navy SEAL in your country, is it right that you We're actually particularly deployed when it comes to underwater explosions and explosives, almost like Nord Stream Pipeline, how to operate explosives under the water.
How long were you doing that for?
So, I need to explain you a bit about how the... So, in Cyprus we have a problem.
In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus and the island is divided since then.
What year was that?
Sorry?
1974.
Thank you.
And it's been 50 years now.
So that's why kind of everyone is forced to go to the military.
Because the island is divided.
It's the last country in the European Union, but that is still divided.
Anyways, so I needed to go to, we all go to the army.
So I needed to choose a place in the army.
So I wanted, I will do 14 months of the army.
So why not to do the most difficult one?
So we went 100 people in this specific place.
and we only finished 13 people so you are going to see kind of the rate of how difficult this is and this is very well respected in my country this is this is the elites of the elites and it's very privileged to be able to finish this army and also it teach me a lot of stuff like Personally, I know that I can't do anything.
It's like you get drowned, you see your limits, it's like eight months hell week or five days staying awake and all this stuff.
It's very interesting and you deeply understand yourself I think when you are in this heavy difficult
Can you tell me one experience and what you deeply understood about yourself from that experience?
Very interesting I was... I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say, but I will say it.
So they are drowning you to make sure that you can perform under panic.
So a teacher of us was drowning me.
And because we swam like for two hours before, so he was drowning me after I was
exhausted. So I was, while he was drowning me, my body, I didn't do it, my body did this to him.
So I was not controlling myself.
It was just, so I was like, okay, at this moment I understood that a lot of the times your body, you don't control your body.
It's like, it's very interesting when you don't want to do something.
I didn't want to do it, but my body did it because it needed air and all this stuff.
So I understood that a lot of the time and maybe something about free, to say about free will or something.
I don't know.
Under stress there are systems that kick in that are always there but you don't know that they're there.
And you cannot control them.
Yeah the system just kicks in and takes over.
I wonder if you saw Dave Chappelle on SNL.
He once did a monologue and in the monologue he talked about how People have misjudged Donald Trump because when Donald Trump started to say things like, I know what these tax loopholes are because I used those tax loopholes as a businessman, it meant that Hillary Clinton had no chance of opposing someone who could talk like that.
Because whether you prefer Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, what all of us are starting to understand is that in the way that you described, Political institutions have a lot of corruption, a lot of benefits, a lot of concealed relationships.
The transparency that you're bringing in your journalistic YouTuber way, and the kind of transparency that Trump brought just because of his bullish personality and charisma, It's in a sense a massive threat to establishment institutions and what's even more fascinating to me about you is the way that you are operating is that you're not telling people I think that we should do this on education or I think we should do this when it comes to ecology.
You are asking people what do you want and I will do it as your servant.
There's something about that that seems to me spiritually very powerful.
Is that something you've thought about or arrived at?
Well, knowing about social media, you understood that that's the right thing to do, to engage the people.
So it's like using my knowledge.
But also, I think it's cool.
Like, how, when did you have a saying about what people do in the European Parliament?
Never.
So I think given this option, at least, and you might say it's immature, it's like, anyway, we are 720 people, one person to do this poll, to just see what people think, for the public to see, like for, I think it's helpful.
Even if let's say maybe this is the wrong thing to do.
I think it's unbelievable.
It's been so fascinating talking to you today because I've learned that your background
both in business, in particular social media business, but your military experience and
then as well as it seems that you have a good intuition about how to communicate with people
and a kind of flexible strength which is an odd ability and one that I really sort of
admire and look up to.
I can see how that you could inspire a lot of people to do what you've done and you've
said that that's already happening in Cyprus, like that you believe that in the next national
elections in Cyprus a lot of TikTokers and YouTubers are standing.
Will you be standing for any national position?
Well, I don't know.
To be the president of Cyprus, you need to be 35 and above.
So I'm still 24, so I don't think about all this stuff.
I have a huge responsibility now because as I pave, let's say, the road to this and it's cool and we make politics cool, it's easily, if I make a big mistake, we say, we told you this is a scumbag.
We told you this is not the right way.
And I will close all the roads for the next ones.
So I have a big responsibility to be good and do the maximum best impact I can.
I don't know yet what it will be, but I'm sure I will find a way because I'm determined to understand and learn and help this universe.
Well done, man.
It's really inspiring to speak with you.
I would love to stay in touch with you because I feel like you're a person that I could just learn a great deal on in how to communicate, how to leverage social media power for good.
It just seems like you're in an incredibly innovative and unique position for now.
But like, it seems like you're leading something that could be really important.
I love you.
I flew here just to meet you.
I'm excited.
Did you use a business class ticket from the EU?
No.
For your own ticket?
No, one of my next polls will be, do you want me to fly business or economy people?
You choose and I will do it.
Oh, you're a bold man.
I don't give people that kind of opportunity.
Phideas, thank you very much.
Thanks so much for watching us today and Phideas, Let us know.
We should do a poll.
I mean, tell us what you want us to do next time.
We will respond to your popular will.
Surely that will be the future of politics and indeed politicians as servants rather than politicians as dominating sovereigns.
People in political positions of power ought be serving in the way that Fidius is.
So inspiring to see.
Thanks for joining us.
See you next week.
Not for more of the same, but for more of the different.
Until then, if you can, stay free.
Many switching, switch on, switch off x2 Many more, many more...
