Calls for Spain to Return to GMT

Could the siesta days for the Spanish be over?

Calls for Spain to Return to GMT

The Spanish people work long hours, often into the dark evening that is an hour later than it really should be.

For the past few years Spain has come close to moving back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but it’s never gone through with the move.

During the campaign process for the general election (not counting the second election that happened in June) Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy made it a campaign promise that he would return Spain back to GMT, taking the country out of GMT+1 and bringing it back in line with Portugal and the UK, which is where a country with its geographical position should be.

Rajoy is now back in power and he’s started the conversation about bringing the clocks back an hour. Fátima Báñez, employment minister of Spain, said last week that the country should think heavily about dropping GMT+1. The country moved to the timezone in 1942 after General Francisco Franco made the move to bring Spain in line with Nazi Germany.

Spain is actually a little further to the west than much of the British Isles, and so it’s fallen out of sync with Europe. This is something that has hampered the workforce of the country and could have held back economic development for decades.

One of the main arguments of those pushing for the change is that the working day in Spain is still based around agricultural labour patterns, rather than being based around the reality that is the office-based existence. While it’s not universal across the whole country many Spanish workers begin their day at 9AM. They work until noon and take a few hours off, before returning to the office to continue working until around 8PM. Critics argue that this working day is too long and exhausting, not to mention it’s an hour longer than it should be.

Fátima Báñez spoke of a desire to create a workday that end sat 6PM. To do this the government will need to deal with trade unions and companies. Báñez will make the first move by meeting with the largest companies and trade unions to create such a deal.

It’s unlikely that there will be opposition to these changes in parliament for Rajoy’s People Party (PP). Both the Socialists (PSOE) and Cuidanos already agree with the plans. There are very little arguments that this change could have a negative impact, and even Catalonia supports the change.

The change almost happened in the Balearics. Back in October the islands implored Madrid to allow them to stay on summer time and not move the clocks back an hour. The request was denied, but it should only be a matter of time now until Spain lets go of their traditions and embraces GMT.

Spain Set to Re-join GMT if Rajoy is Re-Elected

Spain Set to Re-join GMT if Rajoy is Re-Elected

Spain is giving a lot of thought to the idea of moving their clocks back one hour to return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) so that the time zone of the country is in line with the geographical location of Spain.

Spanish time zone could come in line with UK

Mariano Rajoy, the current acting prime minister of Spain, has taken another look at the issue and has said that he will go ahead with the change should he be re-elected. He says that the change should benefit Spain and improve the quality of life for the Spanish people.

Spain changed from GMT to Central European Time (CET) back in the 1940s. It was change brought in by General Franco. Franco wished to bring the country in line with Nazi Germany; who Spain was allied with at the time. Even though the Spanish capital of Madrid is further to the west than London Spain has always been an hour ahead of the UK since then. Spain currently has the same time zone as Serbia, a country 1,550 miles to East. As a result of the current time zone Spaniards are currently able to be active and work for longer.

The hot climate of Spain means that things are often done a little later in the day than in other countries. As a result Spaniards find it easier to stay active and work into the later hours when things cool down. Because of this Spain currently has a vibrant nocturnal culture with the streets coming alive in the late hours. Some people in Spain don’t eat in restaurants or have their dinner until around 10 or 11PM.

Rajoy has argued the benefits of bringing Spain back into GMT along with the Canary Islands however. He believes that if Spain was to adopt GMT then the working day would be over sooner and the country would be able to improve their GDP by adopting closer business ties with Europe by having similar working hours. He also believes that such a change could increase productivity so it matches the levels of more northern European countries.

Such a change could also mean the end of the Spanish two hour lunch break eating local cuisine  which could lead to a bit of resistance within Spain, even though the time zone change is a remnant of a time when Spain was under the iron fist of a dictator like Franco.

It’s unlikely that a decision will be made one way or the other before June however. This is when Spain goes back to the polls to have another general election after their last one in December ended with a hung parliament.