Some 43% of Europeans voted in this year’s EU Parliament elections

Voter turnout for the European Parliament elections was 43.1 percent, overall, which is close to the figure recorded for the previous elections in 2009. Turnout levels differ from country to country. In Germany, which is Europe’s largest economic power, 47.9 percent of people went to vote, which is more than five years ago when the turnout was 43.3 percent. In France, turnout was also higher: 43.5 percent compared to 40.6 percent. In Greece, a country which was strongly hit by the economic crisis, turnout grew from 52.6 percent in 2009 to 57.3 percent in 2014. However, in some Eastern European countries turnout was significantly lower than five years ago. Slovakia is last with a turnout of 13 percent, compared to 19.6 percent in 2009. In Slovenia, only 21 percent of people went to vote and in the Czech Republic turnout decreased to 19.5 percent, from 28 percent in 2009. In Romania, turnout was 32 percent which is significantly higher than the 27 percent in 2009. editor@romania-insider.com