At the center of a controversy, with reactions on both sides, is the New Democracy MEP, Fredi Beleris because of his choice to support Elon Musk‘s “favourite”, Greek-Cypriot MEP Fidias Panayiotou.

In a nutshell, it all started when the Greek MEP of the New Democracy nominated the Cypriot youtuber for the position of vice-chairman of the Special Committee “Shield for European Democracy” in the European Parliament. Fidias Panayiotou was ultimately not elected after losing 33-21 to a Socialist candidate. This move by Beleris, however, provoked both the reaction of SYRIZA MEP Kostas Arvanitis, who spoke of the ND’s collusion with the “far-right and Elon Musk”, and Beleris’ fellow ND member Elise Vozemberg who keeps distances from him.

Trump’s cabinet secretary and billionaire X owner Elon Musk had intervened in a…”love attack”, calling for Fifias to be voted in because “he’s smart and genuinely cares about you.”

In fact, according to reports, Beleris did not inform the head of the New Democracy MEPs, Elisa Vozemberg, who was informed by the head of the Cyprus DISY MEPs, Loukas Fourlas.

For his part, Fredi Beleris justified his action saying that it was a personal choice based solely on the “Greek origin” of Fidias Panagiotou.

“At today’s meeting of the European Parliament’s newly created Special Committee on the European Parliament’s “Shield for European Democracy”, the issue of filling the position of Vice-Chairman was raised. There was no candidate from the European People’s Party. I chose to support the independent Cypriot MEP, Fidias Panayiotou, based solely on his Greek origin and nothing more. The complexes of Mr Arvanitis neither touch me nor concern me.

Arvanitis: New Democracy in partnership with the far-right in favour of Musk

The opportunity was seized by SYRIZA MEP, Kostas Arvanitis, who spoke of a “partnership between the New Democracy and the far-right in favor of Musk in the European Parliament”. Arvanitis said in a statement that “ND MEP Fredi Beleris, representing the EPP, together with the more marginal far-right political group ESN, proposed as First Vice-President of the Commission Fidias Panayiotou, i.e. Elon Musk’s ‘representative’ in the EU and a fanatical supporter of him. The applause of the far-right in the Commission and their support for the ND proposal did not succeed in the end in electing the Cypriot MEP as the socialist candidate won the vote. The Commission that should have investigated Musk’s unfair interference in the EU would have had as its vice-president … his representative in Brussels,” Mr Arvanitis stressed.

On the issue, New Democracy MEP and chairwoman of the Transport and Tourism Committee, Elise Vozemberg, who clarified in a post that the Beleri proposal was a personal choice “and does not fit into the political line of the European group of New Democracy”.

The Beleri remorse

In an attempt to acknowledge that his move caused upset, Mr. Beleris shared Ms. Vozemberg’s statement in a new post, writing, “I want to confirm what the head of our Eurogroup says. It was a personal choice.”

Elon Musk’s “love attack” on Phidias

The tweet from Mask shared a video of Fidias in which he revealed that he was “running” a new campaign within the European Parliament, this time to get elected vice-chairman of a parliamentary committee called “European Democracy Shield”. Fidias himself explained that it is about protecting democratic processes within the European Union and safeguarding against…foreign interference.

Somehow, then, Elon Musk urged a vote for Fidias, even though the MEP himself says in his video that he didn’t think he would be elected.

Some time later, however, Elon Musk came back and shared an interview with his “favorite” MEP Fidias Panayiotou, who was talking about the ways in which, according to him, we could “Make Europe Great Again”.

Following this, Musk himself called on Europeans to join the “Make Europe Great Again” – MEGA movement paraphrasing the central slogan of Donald Trump.