This morning Spain has changed the time againa ritual that marks the entry into winter time and that always reopens the debate about peculiarity of the hour in the country, shared with other countries located further east of Europedespite being geographically closer to Portugal or United Kingdom.
Until 1940, Madrid shared the same time zone of Lisbon (UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer). The idea of these 24 areas that divide the world according to meridians was that each area shared a schedule that best reflected solar noon.
However, during the dictatorship, General Francisco Franco decided align country time with Nazi Germanyadopting Central European Time instead of Greenwich Mean Time, which would be the one that would correspond to Madrid geographically. This decision has been maintained to this day.
Why was the time changed in Madrid?
In the midst of war, Germany imposed its time zone to the territories it occupied, including France. The United Kingdom also temporarily modified its time for war reasons, and in Spain, the Franco dictatorship adopted Berlin time as a gesture of sympathy towards the Nazi regime.
At the end of the war, while countries such as Portugal and the United Kingdom returned to their original schedules, France and Spain They decided to keep the time zone Central European.
This jet lag has generated debates in recent years about the convenience of return to western time zone that Madrid shares with Lisbon, a conversation that has been reignited with the October time change just around the corner. However, for the moment, Madrid will continue to look to Berlin.
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