Why Spain is no longer on the same time zone as United Kingdom | World | News


Spain shares the same time zone as France, Germany, and Italy – a result of a historical twist of fate that may soon be reversed. Geographically, Spain should align its time with the United Kingdom rather than its neighbours.

Historically, Spain operated on mean solar time – determined by the sun’s position in the sky – until it switched to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on December 31, 1900. 

From then on, time was standardised across the country, except for the Canary Islands, which maintained solar time until 1922, reports Culturetrip

Before this change, time varied across Spain based on geographical location.

Spain adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1918, although it wasn’t consistently observed. 

This practice even became a political issue during the Spanish Civil War, with clock changes occurring on different dates depending on which faction controlled the territory.

Spain relied on GMT for 40 years, aligning its time with places like the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Morocco. 

However, just before World War II and during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, the nationalist Falangist forces sought to shift away from GMT to align with Nazi Germany.

Although this attempt was initially blocked and GMT was reinstated in 1939, Franco’s government soon made another attempt, this time successfully.

On March 16, 1940, clocks were moved forward from 23:00 to 00:00 to match Nazi Germany and occupied countries like France and the Netherlands. 

This politically motivated decision aimed to demonstrate support for the fascist regime in Germany, disregarding Spain’s natural solar cycle. And it would make Spain the only nation to voluntarily accept the change.

Geographically, GMT would be the most suitable time zone for Spain.

Many Spaniards believed the clocks would revert to GMT after the war, but that never occurred. 

Although the time changed, daily routines remained the same; for instance, if lunch was traditionally at 1pm, it continued to be served at that time, even though the clock now indicated 2pm.

Consequently, many believe Spain is in the wrong time zone, attributing its relatively late schedules to this historical shift in 1940. As well as lunch being late dinner often starts around 9pm or 10pm.

Some argue that sharing a time zone with Germany leaves Spain ‘out of sync,’ potentially fostering unhealthy lifestyles, with late nights becoming the norm even for children.

However, this may some day change, as in 2016, the Spanish Prime Minister announced plans to revert Spain to GMT. 

This shift could restore the country to its original time zone and help align its working hours more closely with other European nations, facilitating better business relations.



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