Germans more interested than ever in EU elections

Two thirds of the German electorate have a high or very high interest in the European elections, according to a new survey conducted three months before the vote.

Interest in the 2019 EU elections already broke records as 56% of voters expressed a high or very high level of interest – an increase of 18% compared to the 2014 EU elections. This time, however, interest has increased further.

According to a representative survey by Civey on behalf of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 66.1% of voters deem the EU elections important or very important, while only 17% say they have little or very little interest in them.

Enthusiasm for the upcoming vote was particularly high among Green and Social Democrat voters, with 87.5% and 74.4%, respectively.

While conservative, liberal and right-wing voters were the least interested in the election, with 61%, 66.4% and 65.5% holding that view.

However, doubts about the economic benefits of the EU are growing, according to the survey.

While 56.9% of citizens believe that the benefits of EU membership still generally outweigh the costs, only 45.2% think the economic benefits of EU membership outweigh the costs.

(Oliver Noyan | Euractiv.de)

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