A public consultation by the French National Assembly found more than 80 percent of respondents chose to put an end to twice-yearly time changes. A majority preferred keeping the summer time throughout the year, lawmakers said Wednesday.
A record 2.1 million people participated between February 4 and March 3 in an online poll by the National Assembly’s European Affairs Commission. Other previous consultations only had a few thousand voters.
Around 61 percent of the respondents said they had a negative or really negative experience with the time change and 83.71 percent of them demanded an end to the changes twice a year. More than half -- 59 percent -- of the respondents wanted to keep the summer time throughout the year.
The online consultation is not legally binding, but the lawmakers’ commission will send its results to the European Union.
The European Commission did a similar survey in August 2018, with 84 percent of the 4.6 million respondents voting for the end of a time change twice a year. A month later, the commission pushed forward on a resolution proposing to end the time change. Member states would be able to choose the time zone they would enter by 2020 or 2021.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)
