- In the night from Saturday to Sunday, we switch to summer time, it will be time to advance your watch by one hour.
- During the confinement period, for those who favor summer time, this additional hour of sunshine is good for morale and for the economy emerging from the crisis.
Containment sometimes makes you lose track of time. However, this weekend, we return to summer time. Sunday at 2 a.m., it will be 3 a.m., new time. This ritual is anchored in the habits of the French since 1975. A decision taken after the oil shock, following an initial experience between 1916 and 1945.
But this year, in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the extra hour of sun in the evening could be even more welcome than usual. Whether for morale or the economy according to the defenders of summer time.
"I think it's best to be confined by enjoying a little light at night. When the confinement ends, we will see how attached we are to it, that it sticks with our spirit of freedom. And then sectors that are now stopped will need to leave, such as hotels and restaurants, summer time is the most suitable for this ", argues Olivier Fabre, the mayor of Mazamet who is also European association co-chair for summer time.
Summer or winter, it's not decided
The latter was one of the great defenders of maintaining winter time throughout the year when the European Commission decided to propose in September 2018 a new directive which would put an end to these time changes in March and in October. A major citizen consultation was launched last year, and the vast majority of the French have indicated that they prefer summer time to winter time.
The government was to decide on this issue by next year. "But for the moment things are frozen even if each country had until April to give an orientation. I don't see it going the opposite of what people want. Daylight saving time is the one that sticks most to our habits. If we keep winter time, I don't see the point of having the sun rising at 4:30 in the morning in Paris in the middle of summer, "argues Olivier Fabre.
But for this activist, the question is still far from being definitively resolved and we risk several times again to set our clocks on time before being set.
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- Europe
- Containment
- Winter hour
- Summer time
- Sun
- Society
- Time change