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On 6-9 June, European citizens will vote for European Parliament. The opinions and behaviours of Europeans in the run up to these elections have been captured by Verian experts in the latest European Parliament’s Spring Eurobarometer, conducted in February-March 2024.

The upcoming elections have garnered significant attention among Europeans when compared to the 2019 election. European Parliament’s Spring Eurobarometer found that six in ten respondents stated they were interested in the coming elections whereas less than half (49%) said so at a similar period of time in 2019. This increase is mainly driven by those who are “somewhat interested”, whose share increased from 36% in 2019 to 43% in February-March 2024. The interest has also increased slightly (+3 percentage points) since the Autumn 2023 survey.

The interest in European elections varies significantly among EU Member States. The highest results are seen in the Netherlands (72%), Germany (70%) and Ireland (69%), whereas the lowest interest is recorded in Czechia (38%), Bulgaria (40%) and Slovakia (43%). Nevertheless, interest throughout Czechia grew substantially since the Eurobarometer survey conducted prior to the previous elections in February-March 2019 (16% to 38%, +22 p.p.). Whereas the 5-point increase in Slovakia (from 28% to 43%) was among the smallest in the EU. Czechia, Croatia (37% to 61%, +24), Lithuania (36% to 56%, +20) and Finland (44% to 64%, +20) have experienced significant increases in interest, where those interested also have become the majority.

Variations in interest levels are also found between age groups where, respondents aged 55 or older are more likely to express interest than those between the ages of 15 and 24 (60% vs 51%) and those who finished their education at age 20 or older tend to be more interested than those who finished their studies before turning 16 years-old (69% vs 50%).

Those who say they are interested in the next European elections are – logically – more likely to know the exact dates of these next elections than those who do not express interest (17% vs 8%). In the whole of the EU, 14% of the respondents know the correct date, 15% the correct month and year and 38% know that the elections will take place this year but are unable to correctly identify the month. The highest knowledge of the correct date is in Belgium (26% of respondents) and Malta (24%) while the lowest is in Spain (2%), Finland, Ireland and Slovenia, all with 6%.

Luxembourg (74%) and the Netherlands (73%) fair particularly high in relation to the following of European politics, whilst less than half of respondents do so in Bulgaria (47%) and Slovenia (46%).

Since the 2023 Autumn Survey, Lithuania has experienced the largest increase in the share of respondents following European politics, jumping from 45% to 61%, observing a notable increase of 16 percentage points. This is closely followed by Czechia (48% to 57%), Ireland (46% to 55%) and France (43% to 52%); all of whom saw an increase of 9 points. A decrease can only be observed in Malta (from 67% to 60%, -7 p.p.) and Cyprus (56% to 51%, -5 p.p.), however those following European politics still remain the majority.

At the EU level, men tend to exhibit more interest in European politics than women (64% vs. 57%). Similarly, older respondents (55+) are more inclined to follow the political landscape than their younger counterparts (15-24) (64% vs. 48%), with this trend also extending to educational attainment. Those who completed their education at the age of 20 or older are more likely to follow EU politics than those who left education at 15 or younger (71% vs. 50%).