Leaders of Moderaterna and Sverigedemokraterna are talking cooperation. Blessing for both parties, says Åkesson.

the Leader of the Swedish conservatives, Ulf Kristersson, has on Wednesday had his first direct meeting with the head of the højrenationale Sverigedemokraterna, Jimmie Åkesson.

Both agreed that it was high time, and that it can portend a closer cooperation between the Moderaterna and Sverigedemokraterna, writes the news agency TT

the Situation has changed, says Kristersson, who had invited Åkesson to a meeting in his office.

- Yes, Swedish politics has changed completely from the ground up. We've got a very strange government, which does not agree on the direction, and leaving major unresolved problems.

- Then we will solve the problems in specific cases, to see whether we can solve it, he says.

Jimmie Åkesson says to Swedish television that cooperation "will be a boon for both parties".

My assessment is that it was a constructive first meeting, he says.

During the meeting discussed the two tougher penalties for gang members, a new policy on immigration and nuclear power, according to Åkesson.

The two did not mention a possible future intergovernmental cooperation. But Sweden's social democratic prime minister, Stefan Löfven, believe that something is at stake.

- It seems that Moderaterna leaving his baton to Sverigedemokraterna, he says.

Löfven recalls that the Ulf Kristersson two years ago forsvor a cooperation with Sverigedemokraterna.

Several opinion polls show that Sverigedemokraterna right now is the second-largest party in Sweden, surpassed only by the social democrats.

The civil alliance broke down after the elections last year. Here selected Liberalerna and Centerpartiet in place to support a minority government consisting of the social democrats and Miljöpartiet. It was to keep Sverigedemokraterna outside influence.

the Alternative had been a bourgeois government, which had to support themselves Sverigedemokraterna.

/ritzau/