Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson on Monday demanded an official answer from Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch on what the "exceptional situations" were in which she might be willing to vote for Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson as prime minister.
The disagreement broke out when Åkesson openly criticised Busch in the summer speech he delivered in his hometown of Sölvesborg.
"Can you trust the Christian Democrats?" he asked, referring to Busch's recurring flirtation with the Social Democrats. "Is a vote for the Christian Democrats at risk of becoming a vote for Magdalena Andersson?"
While he conceded that Busch's strategy might benefit her party, he told TT after his speech that he thought it was a bad strategy for the Tidö parties.
"This flirtation makes the Centre Party relevant unnecessarily with Annie Lööf's old dream of a broad centrist government, and helps the Social Democrats avoid talking about the Left Party.
After his speech, Busch changed her schedule and turned up in Sölvesborg where she drank coffee and offered Åkesson sockerkaka, a Swedish sponge cake.
"We are agreed on four more years after a blue-yellow victory," Busch said after the meeting, saying she had had "a fantastic coffee" with Åkesson.
After the dispute, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he had faith that Busch would never "do an Annie Lööf and open the way for a left-wing government," a reference to the former Centre Party leader who, together with the Liberal Party, broke from the right-wing Alliance and allowed the Social Democrats to take power after the 2018 election.