Carl Bildt

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{{infobox PM

 |name=Carl Bildt
 |country=Sweden
 |image=Carl Bildt 2001-05-15.jpg
 |order=
 |term=1991 - 1994
 |before=Ingvar Carlsson
 |after=Ingvar Carlsson
 |date_birth=July 15, 1949
 |place_birth=Halmstad, Halland
 |party=Moderate Party
 |spouse=Anna Maria Corazza Bildt

}} Template:Audio (born July 15, 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat. He was Prime Minister of Sweden 1991–1994, and leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party 1986–1999. He was a member of the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) from 1979 to 2001.

Bildt was born in Halmstad, Halland, and belongs to an old Danish-Swedish noble family; his great-great-grandfather, Gillis Bildt, served as prime minister a century earlier. Carl Bildt served as chairman of the Free Moderate Student League, a centre-right student organisation. He was elected leader of the Moderate Party in 1986, succeeding Ulf Adelsohn. In 1991 the Social Democrats were defeated by a four-party coalition led by Bildt's Moderates.

His government program was one of liberalizing and reforming the Swedish economy as well as making Sweden a member of the European Union. It initiated the negotiations for Sweden's accession to the European Union, and Bildt signed the accession treaty at the European Union summit at Corfu in Greece on June 23, 1994.

Far-reaching economic reforms were enacted, including a new pension system, voucher schools, liberalized markets for telecommunications and energy as well as the privatization of publicly owned companies, contributing to modernizing the Swedish economy.

The period was also marked by a severe economic crisis as a result of both mistakes during the 1980s and a European financial crisis in 1992. The Swedish currency had to be floated in the fall of 1992. The different measures, including large cut-backs in public spending, did contribute to a rapid increase in economic growth as well as a reduction in the public deficit in 1994 and 1995.

This notwithstanding, the Social Democrats returned to power in September 1994, although Bildt's Moderate Party scored a slight gain.

In 1999 he was succeeded as party leader by Bo Lundgren.

After the term in government, he was active as mediator in the Balkans conflict, served as the European Union Special Representative to Former Yugoslavia from June 1995, Co-Chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995 and High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from December 1995 to June 1997 immediately after the Bosnian War. From 1999 to 2001, he served as the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Balkans.

He is a Commander of the Légion d'honneur and has been awarded a honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews. He is, among other things, chairman of the board of directors for Kreab.

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