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SPANISH HISTORY

Why Spain is still in the wrong time zone because of Hitler

As Spain again prepares to put the clocks back on Saturday night, we look at the fascinating reasons why the country has been in the wrong time zone for the last 75 years, the possible effects of this historical blip on Spanish society, and why there's still no sign of it changing.

Nazi leader German Chancellor Adolf Hitler (R) shakes hands with Spanish Generalísimo Francisco Franco at Hendaye train station on the French-Spanish border in October 1940. (Photo by AFP)
Nazi leader German Chancellor Adolf Hitler (R) shakes hands with Spanish Generalísimo Francisco Franco at Hendaye train station on the French-Spanish border in October 1940. (Photo by AFP)

Why is Spain in the wrong time zone?

Madrid lies directly south of London. Spain is geographically in line with the UK and Portugal. It makes sense, then, that Spain was in the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) zone until around 75 years ago.

But that all changed in 1940. With Nazi Germany occupying Belgium, Holland, and recently invading France, Spain’s own fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, travelled to the French border to meet with Hitler, the man he and many other believed would go on to dominate Europe.

The momentum was clearly with the Nazis, at the time, and Italy had already pledged its support to Hitler. Although he wanted the same from Spain, Franco, however, didn’t have much to offer. With the country ravaged by its own recent Civil War – in which Franco’s victory was heavily supported by Hitler –  Franco felt obliged to make a gesture of some sort.

Although ultimately remaining neutral in the war, Franco decided to show his support for Hitler by agreeing to put Spain’s clocks forward by an hour in an act of solidarity with Nazi Germany. 

Spain has remained in the Central European Time zone ever since, in line with countries as far east as Poland. That means that Madrid currently has the same time as Warsaw in Poland 2,290km away but is one hour ahead of Lisbon which is only 502 km away. 

The consequences of Spain being in the wrong time zone

But Franco’s decision all those years ago isn’t just a quirk of Spanish history, or testament to the extent to which the legacy of that period still looms over Spanish society, it was a decision that, experts say, has had a lasting impact on Spanish culture and society that underpins everything from Spaniard’s sleep cycles and meal times to the country’s birth rates and economic growth.

In recent years there have been calls to make the switch back to GMT because many believe the time zone quirk is affecting Spaniard’s productivity and quality of life. In 2013 a Spanish national commission concluded that Spaniards sleep almost an hour less than the European average, and that this led to increased stress, concentration problems, both at school and work, and workplace accidents.

Some experts believe this explains the Spanish dependence on siestas – that is, that the lack of sleep makes them necessary – but in reality the siesta has been a consistent feature of Spanish life for centuries for many of the same reasons it still is today: in southern Spain, the fierce summer temperatures make it necessary to stay at home during the afternoon. 

Spain's most famous clock is the Puerta del Sol in central Madrid. Photo: Jorge Franganillo/Flickr
Spain’s most famous clock is at the Puerta del Sol in central Madrid. Photo: Jorge Franganillo/Flickr

One effect of the siesta however is that the break in the day means Spaniards work the most hours in Europe yet at one of the continent’s lowest levels of productivity. A lack of sleep contributes to siesta taking which, in turn, means Spaniards work later into the evening and could partly explain Spain’s notoriously nocturnal lifestyles and late meal times. 

Despite the country running on CET, Spaniards’ eating patterns roughly mirror GMT. Many Spaniards eat lunch at what would be 1 or 1.30pm in London (the traditional 2 or 2.30pm in Spain) and dinner at a reasonable 8pm in London (but 9pm or even 10pm as is customary in many parts of Spain).

Making the change and returning to GMT would, according to Nuria Chinchilla, professor at Spain’s IESE business school, help Spaniards “return to the natural order of our circadian rhythm (our 24-hour physiological cycle) that goes with the sun… and the sun in Greenwich, not Germany”.

“If we don’t (change to GMT) we lengthen the day, eat very late and then don’t sleep,” she added.

Why hasn’t Spain moved to the right time zone yet?

The debate about which time zone Spain belongs in was reinvigorated following recent proposals at the EU level to scrap entirely the daylight savings custom. 

In 2018 the EU Commission announced a proposal to abolish the custom after polling showed that 80 percent of Europeans are in favour of staying permanently on summertime. This debate naturally had many in Spain wondering about whether they were in the right time zone.

But owing to a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and various other bureaucratic difficulties, the proposal was shelved. Member states cannot decide unilaterally on the question of daylight savings, but they can decide which time zone they want to be in. 

Spain has had various commissions over the years exploring the impact of daylight savings and time zones, but no concrete proposals over a return to GMT have ever been made, despite the benefits experts claim it could bring.

Although the government’s focus has been drawn by more pressing issues in recent years – and the issue of time and daylight savings shelved at the European level – expect discussion of whether Spain is actually even in the right time zone this weekend when the clocks do go back, or if the linked issue of daylight savings is eventually taken off the shelf at the European level.

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TERRORISM

‘I’ll never forgive them’: How suffering from Madrid’s 2004 bombings lingers

Twenty years after Ángeles Pedraza lost her daughter during the carnage of the Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200 people, she still doesn't understand why.

'I'll never forgive them': How suffering from Madrid's 2004 bombings lingers

“Although it’s painful and sad every day, when a date like this comes around, it’s much worse. Because after 20 years, I still wonder why, what have these murderers achieved?” Pedraza, 65, told AFP at her home in Valdemoro.

Her memory isn’t what it used to be, but she still remembers “every single minute” of March 11, 2004, when 10 bombs exploded on four commuter trains shortly after 7:30 am, killing 192 people and wounding nearly 2,000.

Her 25-year-old daughter Miryam, she said, would normally take the train to work with her younger brother Javier and as far as the family was concerned, the day started just like any other.

Pedraza was driving to work when she heard initial reports on the radio, but didn’t worry about her kids as the explosion seemed to be at Atocha station in the city centre.

But by the time she got to work, there had been more explosions and everyone was in a panic trying to track down their loved ones. She quickly reached her son who — by a miracle — had overslept, and was safe.

But she could not get hold of Miryam despite trying everything to find her.

“We drove miles to all the hospitals and emergency rooms because every hour, they would release an updated list of those who’d been admitted,” she said.

“All we wanted was to hear her name, but we never did.”

Eventually, they went to an information centre for families where they waited. At 3:00 am, they were told she was among the dead.

‘I’ll never forgive them’

“On that day, you die yourself. Because aside from the immense pain, you cannot understand why,” she said, 20 years of grief etched on her face.

She has since spent years very publicly campaigning for justice as head of the AVT terror victims association. But her son has never once spoken of that day when his sister was killed and he was spared.

“I try not to be bitter and I don’t live with a sense of hatred, but I’ll never forgive those who did this to my daughter.”

As Pedraza was frantically contacting the hospitals, Francisco Alameda Sanchez, who was on the same train but escaped largely unharmed, was down on the tracks trying to help the wounded.

In the first carriage where one of the bombs went off, Sanchez, who was 40 at the time, found himself lying on his back with the train’s doors and windows blown out.

“I wasn’t physically hurt except I had a lot of pain in my ears, so I stayed to help people who were worse off than me,” he told AFP. He likely survived because he was sitting at the furthest point from the blast, he said.

He stayed for three more hours, during which time he witnessed horrors that never left his mind: the screaming, burnt bodies, people without legs.

With no way of carrying the injured, several of them used the train doors as stretchers, which were so heavy it took six people to carry them.

“The smell of burning, of burnt flesh, has stayed with me. And the deathly silence,” he told AFP at Atocha station.

READ MORE: 20 years since the deadliest terror attacks in Spain’s history

‘The fear has stayed with me’

His ears recovered and he went back to work, refusing therapy, thinking he “was strong and could deal with it on my own”.

But 10 years later, he was struggling so he joined the March 11 Terror Victims Association and found a therapist which transformed his life. Since 2016, he has served as secretary of the group, which has 1,900 members.

Even so, he has not shaken off the fear.

“The fear has stayed with me, every time I come here my head starts spinning,” he said, glancing around the huge station which lies close to Madrid’s Prado Museum and Retiro park.

Rut Jezabel Garcia was 24 when the train she was on exploded, sustaining a shoulder injury that needed surgery, and long-term hearing problems as well as years of psychological issues.

“Although I was on the train that suffered the least damage, it was just horrible,” said Garcia, who works in accounting and has a 10-year-old daughter.

“There are images of injured people you can’t get out of your head, even though it’s been 20 years… It was just unreal, like something from a film.”

Since then, she’s never taken the same train and avoids crowds “because I’m afraid the same thing could happen again.”

She still has shoulder pain, hearing problems and suffers from persistent insomnia.

Despite everything, she’s grateful to be alive, although the anniversary will always be difficult.

“For me, the month of March is horrible, no matter how many years pass,” she said, fighting back the tears.

“It’s always bad. If I could, I’d erase it from the calendar.”

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