  We present the results of an optical spectral synthesis analysis for the
nuclei of 20 Seyfert 2 and 4 Radio Galaxies, using a base of stellar population
templates of different ages and metallicities and a power-law continuum.
Compared with the stellar population of elliptical galaxies, we find that
Seyfert 2s usually have a smaller contribution from old metal rich stars (10
Gyr, Z>=Z_o), and a larger contribution from stars with 100 Myr. We also find
that the contributions from stars with age <=10 Myr and from a power law
continuum are small, rarely exceeding 5 per cent. These results show that the
general assumption of elliptical galaxies as stellar population templates for
these objects is incorrect, also implying that the excess blue continuum
frequently found in their nuclear spectra is probably due to this template
mismatch. We find a considerable contribution from 100 Myr stars (~5 per cent),
which can be interpreted from the point of view of models where the fueling of
the AGN is done by interactions/mergers.
