Why Spain Eats So Late and How Franco’s Clock Still Rules the Day

If you’ve ever been to Spain, you’ll know the rhythm of life runs late. Lunch at 3 p.m., dinner at 10 p.m., cafés still buzzing near midnight. Tourists often put it down to the relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle, but there’s a hidden reason behind it: Spain lives in the wrong time zone.

Geographically, Spain should share time with the UK, Ireland and Portugal (UTC + 0). Yet, since 1940, it’s been on Central European Time (UTC + 1), the same as Germany. That change came under Francisco Franco, who shifted the clocks forward to align with continental Europe. Officially, it was about “efficiency” and “coordination,” but historians agree it also reflected a political gesture of closeness to Hitler’s Germany. After the war, Spain simply never switched back.

Before then, the Spanish day looked quite different. People ate lunch around 1 p.m. and dinner at about 8 p.m., perfectly in sync with the sun. But when the time shifted forward, daily routines didn’t. Spaniards carried on eating and working by the daylight they knew, effectively living one hour behind their watches. Over decades, this turned into a cultural identity: a nation famous for late meals, late TV, and late nights. Ironically this identity is largely linked to one political decision.

The Canary Islands, however, kept their clocks where geography intended, an hour behind the mainland (in the same timezone as the UK, Ireland and Portugal). The phenomenon of having multiple timezones is pretty unheard of in the Europe, which makes it more striking the first time you hear Spanish TV or radio broadcast ending with the iconic reminder “¡Una hora menos en Canarias!” (“One hour later in the Canaries!”). The phrase has also become a national in-joke, with locals often reworking it playfully: “¡Llegas tarde… debes ser de Canarias!” (“You’re late… you must be from the Canaries!”).

Despite over half a century of being in the wrong time zone, the issue is still pertinent in Spanish political debates. This week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez revisited the matter, announcing that Spain will push the European Union to end the twice-yearly clock changes between summer and winter time. His stance follows a 2018 EU vote, when the European Parliament agreed in principle to abolish daylight-saving time, but progress stalled as member states disagreed on which time to keep. Sánchez’s announcement puts the issue back on the table, and he aims for Spain to adopt a permanent time by around 2026.

The idea of changing the clocks twice a year was originally rooted in practicality. Daylight saving time was introduced to make better use of daylight hours and reduce energy consumption. It was a sensible strategy in an age when electricity was costly and most people worked fixed daytime schedules. But the world has changed. With advances in LED lighting, flexible work patterns and 24-hour economies, the supposed benefits are now marginal at best. In fact, research increasingly highlights the downsides of daylight saving: disrupted sleep, lower concentration and even a short-term spike in accidents in the days following each clock change.

For Spain, the debate runs deeper than daylight saving. Even if the country stops changing clocks twice a year, its mainland will still be one hour ahead of solar time. That means winter mornings will stay dark until after eight, while summer sunsets will keep stretching towards eleven. This gives Spain its famously long summer days, but it also keeps its daily rhythm out of sync with natural daylight.

So yes, Spain might finally stop changing its clocks, but to truly be on time, it would need to change its time zone. Until it makes any changes, enjoy your late dinners, your long sunsets, and remember: somewhere out west, it’s always una hora menos en Canarias.