However, many of the leaders in the union have reason to be nervous. Scholz and his fellow French President Emmanuel Macron are being challenged by the right-wing populists of Germany’s AFD and France’s RN, which are fighting to become the biggest party in the EU elections.
Among those who vote, opinions differ about what needs to be done in Europe. Ulf Schad from Germany believes that the European Union needs to be reformed.
– I am a European friend, but the EU must not become an end in itself, the Union must serve its citizens. That’s exactly what I voted for today, says Ulf Schad outside a polling station in Berlin.
– I am not in favor of a federalist Europe, but I hope for an agreement in all European countries, so that Europe can become a united block and look in the same direction, says the Frenchman Paule Richard in another polling station in Paris.
In Spain, the politicians are faced with voter apathy – at 2 p.m. the Spanish media counted only 28 percent voter turnout, 7 percentage points lower than at the same time in the last election.
The first results are expected after Italy, the last country to close its polling stations at 11 p.m.
– I hope that Europe changes. It has not been a Europe for Europe. We have never been the “United States of Europe”. Everyone thinks of their own interests, says Italian Paolo Taddeo at a polling station in Rome.