The 23 kookiest MEPs heading to the European Parliament
We made our own group of the most outlandish MEPs coming to the new European Parliament.
By EDDY WAX and HANNE COKELAERE
Photo-illustration by Giulia Poloni/POLITICO (source images from Getty and iStock)
BRUSSELS — You need 23 MEPs from seven different countries to form a political grouping in the European Parliament.
POLITICO is proud to present the Kooky Group.
These are the wildest, wackiest or downright weirdest MEPs elected last weekend. And if they were to join forces they’d meet all the criteria to form their own grouping. Will they? No. But that’s not the point here.
They include a Cypriot YouTube star, an anti-corruption singer from Bulgaria, a Greek butcher almost no one has ever seen, and a former racing driver accused of making a Hitler salute.
POLITICO is proud to present the Kooky Group.
Fidias Panayiotou — YouTuber
From YouTube to the big screen … EBS. The 25-year-old influencer behind such viral YouTube hits as “I stood for 4 days straight” stood for Parliament and placed third in Cyprus. He has 2.1 million subscribers on the video-sharing platform and has racked up 1 million views for his video entitled “I forced Elon Musk to hug me” and 5 million for one called “I lived in the airport for 7 days for free.” If you see him hanging out in Brussels Airport it will be because he’s on his way to the European Parliament, where he will be an independent MEP and has said he wants to create his own party. He has vlogged about the intimate details of his break-up but will he be as painfully transparent when it comes to lobby meetings?
Wild factor:
Galato Alexandraki — The butcher of Thrace
Maybe she’s now the Butcher of Brussels? Galata Alexandraki, 76, is a retired cattle breeder who runs a butcher shop in Alexandroupolis in northern Greece. There are no photos of her online. Not one. But she’s so well-known locally that she did not run a campaign or give an interview — and still won a seat for the nationalist Greek Solution party, which came second after the EPP-affiliated New Democracy. She is yet to say whether she will take up the seat.
Wild factor:
Ilaria Salis — Antifa
The 39-year-old Italian teacher and anti-fascist activist is accused of attempted murder after allegedly attacking people at a far-right event in Budapest. Imprisoned in Hungary, her case caused a diplomatic incident when she appeared in a courtroom with her arms and legs in shackles. In April, the Greens and Left Alliance (AVS) announced that they would add her to their list for the European election — the idea being that if she were to win a seat, Salis would benefit from parliamentary immunity and in theory be freed. She got elected and is now protected by immunity.
Wild factor:
Petras Gražulis — Impeached and facing prosecution
The 65-year-old was elected for Lithuania’s People and Justice Union — although the country’s results were not yet final at the time of publication. Gražulis was impeached last year in the Lithuanian parliament, after voting on behalf of another lawmaker who wasn’t present. He was banned for 10 years from running for office — but apparently that doesn’t apply to EU elections. Gražulis is also facing prosecution for making homophobic remarks. State broadcaster LRT described him as “one of the most colorful politicians in Lithuania who has built his reputation with stunts against LGBTQI rights.”
Wild factor:
Afroditi Latinopoulou — Goddess of body shaming
Named after the Greek goddess of beauty, Latinopoulou got kicked out of the Greek New Democracy party after body-shaming a television presenter. She won a seat with the Voice of Reason party, which espouses lifetime tax exemptions for women who have four or more children. She is anti-abortion and anti-immigration, and wants to ban members of the LGBTQI community from working in the education system.
Wild factor:
Grzegorz Braun — The destroyer of religious symbols
A member of the extreme-right Confederation party, he has a penchant for destroying religious symbols. He infamously extinguished a Hanukkah menorah in the Polish parliament chastising the Festival of Lights as a “satanic cult” (and has referred to Polish Jews as “the enemies of Poland”) and last year vandalized a Christmas tree adorned with baubles bearing EU and Ukrainian flags.
Wild factor:
Sarah Knafo
Aged 31, Knafo is the girlfriend of far-right French firebrand Eric Zemmour, 65, and she was elected on his Reconquest party’s list. Reconquest’s top MEP will be Marine Le Pen’s niece Marion Maréchal, who is married to Italian Brothers of Italy politician Vincenzo Sofo. Sofo didn’t make it back to Parliament this time, but the two couples could still go on double dates, at least they could if Maréchal and Zemmour weren’t embroiled in a battle to control Reconquest as part of the soap opera that is French politics.
Wild factor:
Alvise Pérez — Far-right influencer
Spain’s Luis Pérez, known as Alvise, wants to “destroy the system and rebuild it from scratch.” With Se Acabó la Fiesta — The Party’s Over — Pérez won three Parliament seats out of nowhere, likely at the expense of the far-right Vox party. Formerly a Liberal Democrat in the U.K., he has hundreds of thousands of followers on his channels on YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and just about every other platform. A self-declared prosecutor of “the corrupt and criminals,” he’s known for anti-abortion protests, bragging about plans to build Europe’s largest prison, and targeting journalists and immigrants, according to El Pais.
Wild factor:
Filip Turek — One-track mind
Turek has taken his love for cars to a whole new level. His party, an alliance between the Czech Přísaha party and Motorists for Themselves, wants to stop the introduction of the euro in the Czech Republic and has campaigned against immigration and the Green Deal. But on his Facebook page, Turek highlights just one of the party’s campaign targets: To reverse the ban on combustion engine cars. Motoring is, according to Turek, his “destiny.” A former racing driver, he has also made a name as a keen collector of expensive cars and the founder and chairman of the Czech Republic’s Jaguar Club. He was removed from pre-election debates when police launched an investigation into an image that appeared to show him making a Nazi salute.
Wild factor:
Sibylle Berg — The artist
Berg is putting the pen down to join the European Parliament. An author and playwright, Berg is the latest MEP to be elected on the ticket of German satirical party Die PARTEI, succeeding disillusioned satirist Nico Semsrott. Berg’s priorities are surveillance, privacy and class struggle, Berg told FAZ. “I have reached a level of political and social incomprehension that I would like to become active outside the narrowly defined framework of literature.” With a seat in the EP secured, Berg has no plans for a new book any time soon. “Saving the world is manual labor,” Berg said.
Wild factor:
Roberto Vannacci — The General
The former officer in the Italian army became famous when he wrote a bestselling book called “The World Upside Down” in which he made controversial remarks on women, homosexuality and immigration. After being placed under disciplinary investigation by Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, Vannacci became a familiar face on Italian TV talk shows, where he repeatedly referred to Benito Mussolini as “a statesman.” The far-right League party stuck him at the top of the list in two of the country’s five regional constituencies. There are even rumors that he is ready to challenge Matteo Salvini — known as “the Captain” — for the leadership of the party. A wisecrack is circulating in Italy: A general doesn’t take orders from a captain.
Wild factor:
Helmut Geuking — Family guy
Like father, like son. Geuking senior, a German who is part of the EPP group, handed over his seat in the European Parliament to his son Niels in February. But now Daddy Geuking is back. Their party’s name? You guessed it. The Family Party.
Wild factor:
Diana Șoșoacă — Russia’s favorite Romanian politician (in 2021)
In 2021, Russian state-owned media outlet Sputnik named Șoșoacă Romania’s politician of the year. Now she’s coming to Brussels. The anti-vaxxer won a seat in the Romanian senate on the ticket of the right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians, but has since been expelled from that party and joined one considered more radical still: S.O.S Romania. Șoșoacă has come under fire for her visits to Russia’s embassy and for defending a return to a “Greater Romania,” the territory of which would also cover parts of Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine. A 2023 bill she filed to claim sovereignty over parts of Ukraine landed her on the country’s sanctions list.
Wild factor:
Milan Mazurek — Smiling racist
The 30-year-old far-right Slovak is the second MEP on the Republic Party’s list (its other MEP, Milan Uhrík, is too extreme for the Identity & Democracy group). The shaven-headed Mazurek has been convicted for making racist remarks about Roma people, and a former school classmate quoted Mazurek as saying that the Holocaust was a scam, that he smiled as he visited the Auschwitz death camp, and that he used to go around beating up Roma people in his youth.
Wild factor:
Petr Bystron — Putin propagandist?
The number two on the Alternative for Germany list has so far escaped the fate of lead candidate Maximilian Krah, who was excluded from the party. That’s despite the fact that Bystron has also been the subject of police raids and is being investigated for being a lynchpin in a pro-Russian propaganda operation centered around a media outlet called Voice of Europe. Bystron is accused of accepting €20,000 from the Viktor Medvedchuk-linked Voice of Europe outlet.
Wild factor:
Marco Tarquinio — Anti-NATO journalist
Plucked from outside the world of politics by Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein, Tarquinio made headlines in Italy when he said he wanted to disband NATO and that Ukraine should have opted for “non-violent self-defense.” Tarquinio is the former director of the Catholic Church’s newspaper Avvenire, and he has openly opposed the right to abortion. How he will fit into an S&D group that is outwardly pro-Ukraine is anyone’s guess.
Wild factor:
Anders Vistisen — The EU Trump
You’re fired! That’s what the Danish far-right MEP told Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a debate in April, saying he would sack 10,000 EU civil servants if he became Commission chief. His real contest was to keep his own job, which he just about managed, having received ringing video endorsements from the likes of Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen.
Wild factor:
Manuela Ripa — Shocked lawyer
A 48-year-old lawyer from the tiny Ecological Democratic Party, Ripa got in hot water last year when POLITICO reported complaints from some of her staff that she harassed them. Ripa said she and her office had been “shocked” by the anonymous allegations. Things got worse for her earlier this year when German paper Die Welt reported that she passed confidential documents from parliamentary negotiations to a steel company.
Wild factor:
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann — Motorcycling grandma
The German liberals’ lead candidate, a former chair of the Bundestag’s defense committee, is best known for her outspoken views on the need to support Ukraine and the fact that she likes to ride motorbikes. She fiercely attacked Ursula von der Leyen’s record on the campaign trail, but kept some ammo in reserve for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who she said has “almost autistic traits.”
Wild factor:
Hristo Petrov, Bulgarian pop star
Known as Itzo Hazarta, the hip-hop artist won a seat in Bulgaria for the We Continue The Change party. His tunes have racked up millions of listens online and have become the soundtrack to anti-corruption protests. The video for the song “I Have A Guy” features him going around Bulgaria vaporizing corrupt parts of the Bulgarian state system.
Wild factor:
Fredi Beleri — Imprisoned mayor
Beleri celebrated his election as a Greek MEP for the New Democracy party in an Albanian prison. Beleri was elected mayor of the Albanian coastal town of Himarë just days after being arrested for vote-buying. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Greek politicians have decried the move as an Albanian attempt to frustrate the political activities of its Greek minority.
Wild factor:
Daniel Obajtek — Mannequin PiS
The “golden child” of Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government, Obajtek was the CEO of state oil company PKN-Orlen until he was fired earlier this year by the new government. Now he’s coming to Brussels where he might run into Michał Szczerba, who was elected as an MEP for Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform. As an MP, Szczerba called on Obajtek to testify in a cash-for-visas scandal. Obajtek refused, saying it would take up valuable time “at the last moment of the elections.”
Wild factor:
Ivan David — The rebel
The Czech far-right lawmaker and psychiatrist voted against the majority of his Identity and Democracy group 4,406 times — or 41 percent of the time — in the last Parliament, making him one of the biggest rebels in Parliament. Active on the agriculture committee during the last mandate, David was in Brussels for a secretive meeting of far-right leaders alongside Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen this week.
Wild factor:
The post The 23 kookiest MEPs heading to the European Parliament appeared first on Politico.
