In the middle of #World War II, the dictator Francisco #Franco of #Spain decided to make a gesture of solidarity to his ally Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany: to adapt the time zone of Spain with the one that corresponded to the German country. In the same way, Benito Mussolini carried out the same action in Italy as a gesture of cordiality.
With the defeat of the Nazi regime in 1945, Francisco Franco did not make any change and the time zone with an hour difference of delay with respect to its correct spindle that corresponds to the Central European Time was continued using in Spain and continues until today.
The curious fact that Madrid shares the same hour with a city as Bratislava at 2500 km. Of distance, implies pleasant things like that the sun leaves not so morning and that it is put also later, granting to Spain long summer afternoons and twilight to the 10 pm of the night. The working day usually starts at 9am and ends at 8pm.
But the negative part of this, which has lasted more than 70 years, is that it has affected the health of the Spaniards by depriving them of their adequate sleep and reducing their productivity. “The fact that time in Spain does not correspond to the movement of the sun, affects health and especially sleep,” says José Luis Casero, president of the National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Time, which advocates since 2006 for A return to the appropriate time zone.
“It is frightening and it affects the ability of people to see for their children and spend the necessary time with them after school; We also sleep an hour less than it should be, so we are less productive given the hours worked and there are more accidents. It is truly irrational and that is why we are campaigning to change that, “says Professor Nuria Chinchilla, director of the International Work and Family Center at IESE Business School in Spain.
The change or not of this singular fact generates conflict at political and social level in Spain and a discussion at all levels. Since April last year, the government of Mariano Rajoy has tried to promote the change of the time zone, finding both support and rejection in sectors of the Spanish population, but that remains a matter that has not yet been determined.
Source: Quartz, La Vanguardia, BBC News