In the EU capital of Brussels there has been much political kerfuffle around Spitzenkandidaten – the six politicians campaigning to be the next president of the European Commission.

The run-up to this week’s vote has seen the would-be presidents engage in all manner of tub-thumping electioneering, including debates, twitter-chats, country visits and speeches.

To a politician they have argued that choosing one of them – centre-right Jean-Claude Juncker, centre-left Martin Schulz, liberal Guy Verhofstadt, Green Ska Keller/Jose Bove or lefist Alexis Tsipras – will improve EU democracy.

EUobserver took to the streets of five European cities to see if the idea had made itself felt beyond the Brussels bubble. And, if not the idea itself, whether people had heard of the candidates for the three biggest political groups: Juncker, Schulz and Verhofstadt.

In the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland the overall result was the same among those interviewed: a lack of knowledge about the candidates and a lack of awareness of how their vote could influence who becomes the next commission president.

On top of this was the oft-expressed sentiment that either the EU elections don’t matter or are not worth bothering about.

Here is some of what they said.