The devastating wildfire that has killed at least 12 people in Almeria should ‘end climate change denial’, pundits and politicians have said.

Speaking on La Sexta, El Pais’s political correspondent Carlos Cue said ‘things will have to change’ going forward.

He added that the fire had broken out in an area where parties that question or deny climate change enjoy significant electoral support, referencing hard-right Vox and the conservative Partido Popular.

‘We’ll have to see what changes after this, because clearly things will have to change,’ Cue said.

‘This is one of the areas of Spain where these parties receive some of their strongest support.’

Cue said he hoped the tragedy would help end arguments over the science behind climate change.

‘Perhaps disasters like this, despite the horror so many families are experiencing, can finally make people stop debating whether climate change exists’, he said.

The comments echo those made earlier on Friday by PSOE Andalucia leader Maria Jesus Montero, who, while expressing her condolences to the victims and support for firefighters, warned there should be ‘not one step backwards in the fight against climate change and its dangerous effects in Andalucia.’

Television presenter Antonio García Ferreras went further during the discussion, saying: ‘There is no debate. There are flat-earthers, and there is science.’

Journalist Antonio Ruiz Valdivia also criticised what he described as the lack of political urgency around climate policy, arguing that the governing agreement between the PP and Vox in Andalucía amounts to ‘a climate denial pact.’

The debate comes as hundreds of firefighters continue battling the blaze in Almeria, which has become the deadliest wildfire in Andalusia’s history and remains active as search teams continue looking for missing people.

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.