President López Obrador announced Wednesday that he will send a bill to Congress to eliminate daylight saving time.
The bill will go to either the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate next week, he told reporters at his regular news conference.
“I’m going to send it because I have the studies and I have a survey,” López Obrador said, explaining that the government asked people whether they want daylight saving time or not.
The president said earlier this month that government studies showed that the savings generated by daylight saving time are “minimal and the harm to health is considerable.”
López Obrador said Wednesday that the Interior Ministry conducted a telephone survey last week and found 71% support for elimination. He didn’t reveal how many people were polled but pledged to present the survey results next week.
AMLO indicated that he was unconcerned by the possibility that opposition lawmakers will stop his bill from becoming law, asserting that he was doing his bit by getting the initiative to Congress. Asked whether he would eliminate summer time by decree if lawmakers don’t approve his bill, he responded:
“It’s better that it’s done in Congress. … It’s better off being a reform to some of the secondary laws than a constitutional reform.”
Former president Ernesto Zedillo established the nationwide observance of daylight saving time by decree in early 1996.
AMLO said June 1 that there was a good chance that the practice of changing clocks twice a year at the start and end of daylight saving time would be terminated this year. On Monday he responded to concerns that the elimination of summer time would have an adverse effect on the economy, rejecting claims that the stock market will fall and there will be higher inflation.
“No, no, nothing will happen. … It’s very probable that there won’t be summer time [in the future] because people don’t want the time change,” López Obrador said.
With reports from El Universal
