Alarm clocks (Illustration).

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Rudy and Peter Skitterians / Pixabay

  • In the night from Saturday to Sunday, we switch to winter time, it will be time to set back your watch by one hour.

  • This seasonal change in time should have been the last after a vote last year by MEPs.

    But the question is ultimately far from settled.

  • Summer time remains the most popular with the French, its defenders like Olivier Fabre, the mayor of Mazamet, seeing many advantages in it.

It should have been the last time change of the century, the last time you wonder whether you should move your watch forward or backward, your alarm clock and the ten clocks in the house.

This weekend, the French indeed switch to winter time, at 3 a.m. it will actually be 2 a.m.

Last year, MEPs approved the removal of this seasonal measure in 2021 across the European Union.

⏰ The change to #winter time will occur during the night of Saturday 24 to Sunday 25 October 2020


✅ @RoutePlusSure reminds all road users and in particular pedestrians, cyclists and scooter users, the importance of make #visible pic.twitter.com/087SIEu4Ct

- Prefect of Aveyron (@ Prefet12) October 23, 2020

But now, the health crisis has passed there and the European Council of Ministers remains divided, some countries not being in favor of summer time, yet 84% acclaimed by 4.6 million European citizens ( out of 448 million inhabitants) who responded to a major consultation launched in 2019.

“The file had already fallen behind before the Covid because there is a difficulty in finding a consensus.

The current system makes it possible to have the same time zone from Spain to Poland, no longer changing the time would result in the creation of more time zones in Europe.

Given the context, I doubt that this is a priority.

In my opinion, we will continue to change the time for a long time, this is not the last time, ”indicates Olivier Fabre, who sets the record straight.

The mayor of Mazamet, in the Tarn, is also the co-president of the European association for summer time, two hours behind the sun.

Especially in this complicated time.

Economic and environmental benefits

“With the curfew, we see the benefit of having light later in the evening.

The sectors affected by the crisis are closely linked to summer time, be it tourism, hotels or even aviation.

A whole bunch of destinations would lose their appeal without a change to summer time, ”argues this manager who is favorable on a case-by-case basis at European level.

There is no question of plunging certain countries too early into darkness or of having sunrises too early.

"We can understand the argument of maintaining change in some countries," he says.

But for France, he sees advantages above all in staying in summer time.

Among them, questions of road safety, Belgian studies having shown for a long time that accidents were more numerous at nightfall than in the morning, at sunrise.

For people who work early, especially workers on construction sites, it is cooler in the morning in summer.

And on the environmental side, if we kept winter time all year round, we would have to use heating on the terraces even more often, when it is authorized.

“If there is a solution to rule out, it is that of maintaining winter time all year round.

In France, the choice is clear, the consultation of the National Assembly demonstrated it with nearly 60% of favorable opinion for summer time ”, continues Olivier Fabre.

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  • Sun

  • Summer time

  • Europe

  • Winter hour

  • Society

  • Time change