An outspoken Finnish Orthodox Church priest who was barred from serving the Church for standing in Sunday's European election was one of 13 candidates elected to represent Finland in the assembly.

Father Mitro Repo, 50, an independent candidate on the Finnish Social Democratic Party's list, won some 71,500 direct votes, enabling him to take one of the Social Democrats' two seats.

"Honestly, this (popularity) was partly a surprise to me," Fr Repo said in an interview with public broadcaster YLE.

The candid priest made headlines a couple of weeks ago when the Orthodox bishops' meeting banned Repo from serving as a priest during his EU Parliament candidacy and possible political career.

"A priest is, like his role model, everybody's servant and therefore cannot represent one particular group in society," the church explained at the time.

The Church barred Fr Repo from conducting religious services or wearing the priest's robe or any other symbols of the priesthood because Orthodox tradition prohibits priests from participating in politics. Fr Repo said then that he was disappointed and surprised by the bishops' decision because there had previously been other Finnish Orthodox priests who were active in politics.

But Finns showed that Fr Repo's candidacy was not a mistake, and he garnered more votes than anybody else on the Social Democrats list.

"I will promote a more human Europe. I have been talking about the problems in working life for years in Finland and I will pursue that also in Europe," he said.