Will it be the first unifying festival in the pandemic or a bizarre football trip through a battered continent?

The mood at the venues beyond Munich ranges from cheerful to excited.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung looks at all EM locations.

Hungary: a full house

Hungary is the only country where the games can take place in front of a full house: three group games and a round of 16. The stadium in Budapest is named after the former football hero Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006). Built in 2017, the arena has 67,000 seats. Hungarian fans are only allowed in if they can provide evidence of vaccination or recovery. The government in Budapest considers this procedure to be responsible and practicable because of the comparatively great progress made in vaccination.

Every second inhabitant has already received a first stitch.

Foreign visitors can also enter if they present a PCR test in Hungarian or English that is not older than 72 hours.

Visitors should also include the country's political elite, above all Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is enthusiastic about football.

Coincidentally, Parliament ends its spring session this year in time for the group matches of the Hungarian team.

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Netherlands: "Alles Oranje"

Pandemic regardless, anger about the coach and the game system, the Netherlands is in orange fever. After two missed major tournaments, this ambitious football nation can finally immerse itself in its favorite color again. The Elftal will even play three home games in front of 16,000 spectators in Amsterdam, while fans without tickets dress up their grill buffets with orange sausages and orange salads. "In the whole country everything is orange," says the former national player Youri Mulder, nothing of the football depression of other nations can be felt here.

On the front page of the country's only tabloid, fans express their belief in winning the title instead of expressing concerns about the risk of contagion when watching football together;

the country is longing for a great football summer.

"The euphoria is enormous, and commerce is doing well because all furniture stores and supermarkets are decorated in orange from top to bottom," says Mulder.

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Spain: "Vaccination precursor"

In Spain, before the European Championship kick-off against Sweden on Monday in Seville, it is more about Covid-19 than about the line-up or the game tactics. After Sergio Busquets tested positive and Diego Llorente apparently tested false positive, the country debated for days whether the team should be vaccinated. Spain shines with very good vaccination rates in older age groups - 90 percent of those over 50 have now received at least one dose. Younger groups only come into play when the older groups are through.

In the eyes of some, professional footballers become “vaccination precursors”.

They represent the country, so they are vaccinated: This is how the government reacted with a word of power - albeit very late.

After all, immunity is only guaranteed a week after the second dose, that would be the semifinals on July 6th.

Should other players become infected, a kind of B-Elf with eleven U-21 players is available in a separate bubble to increase the EM squad.

The match with Lithuania, originally intended as a European Championship test, was already played by the U 21. They won 4-0.

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Italy: Fan festivals and public viewing

In the country of the four-time world champions, it is actually like always before a major tournament - almost like in the times before the pandemic. The fever curve of national excitement rises. The newspapers sell special supplements with all kinds of information about the Squadra Azzurra. The national flag is sold at special prices in petrol station shops. The TV reporters report breathlessly from the team headquarters in the Coverciano training center near Florence.