The early hours of this Sunday, October 26th, will cause the clocks in Portugal to go back 60 minutes, leaving the country ‘closer’ to Brazil. At 02:00, the time on the mainland and in Madeira will return to 01:00, marking the end of summer time in the country and reducing the difference to the Brazilian time zone.
On the Azores islands, this change will occur at 01:00, when the clocks will return to 00:00.
Summer time, which began this year in Europe on March 30, has been the subject of debate in several countries, such as Spain, which want it to end. Last Monday, October 20, the head of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, published a video in which he called for the change to be abolished. “Frankly, I no longer see the point,” said Sánchez, who took the proposal to the European Council.
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“In all the polls in which Spanish and European respondents were interviewed, the majority were against changing the time”, added Pedro Sánchez, who also spoke of the negative effects on the health and well-being of citizens to justify this decision.
Created in Germany in 1916, in the context of World War I, summer time aimed to save fuel on lighting, making more use of natural light. Portugal has since adopted the change. In Brazil, the first time that clocks were officially advanced was in 1931, during the government of Getúlio Vargas, with alternating periods of application or not and differences between regions.
In 2019, under Jair Bolsonaro’s government, the change was revoked once again and so far it has not returned. At the beginning of this month, the National Operator of the Brazilian Electric System recommended a return to summer time due to the risk of overloading the system, but the measure was rejected by the Federal Government. ‘We are absolutely certain that we do not need daylight saving time this year. We would have the courage to implement it, if necessary’, said the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, on the EBC program ‘Good Morning, Minister’.
Previously, at the end of September, the Mines and Energy Committee of the Chamber of Deputies had already approved the bill that definitively prohibits the adoption of daylight saving time throughout the national territory.pointing out health problems that are generated and the inefficiency in energy saving. The proposal will still go through the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Committee and only then will it be voted on by the Chamber. To become law, it needs to be approved by deputies and the Federal Senate.
caroline.ribeiro@dn.pt