FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Parliament elections have been sedate affairs in the past but this week’s voting has the potential to shake things up — particularly national governments’ approaches to cutting debt and spurring growth.

Parties that oppose bringing the 28 European Union nations closer together are being buoyed by protest votes and economic misery in the wake of the continent’s slowly healing debt crisis. They’re expected to get up to 30 percent of the vote that began Thursday in some nations and ends Sunday.