Editing Carl Bildt (section)

==Early career==

In May 1968, Bildt opposed the [[occupation of the Student Union Building]] by leftist political forces and co-founded the [[Borgerliga Studenter – Opposition '68]] group which went on to win the Student Union elections in Stockholm for a number of years. He served as chairman of the FMSF [[Confederation of Swedish Conservative and Liberal Students]], a centre-right student organisation, in the early 1970s, and also chaired European Democrat Students, bringing together like-minded centre-right student organisations from across Europe.

When the non-socialist formed government in 1976, Bildt served as the head of the Policy Coordinating Office in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and close collaborator to the party leader and Minister of Economy [[Gösta Bohman]]. Bildt became a [[Parliament of Sweden|Member of Parliament]] in 1979, although he served instead as State Secretary for Policy Coordination in the reformed non-socialist government after that election.

As an MP in the early eighties, he became noted as an incisive and combative debater on foreign affairs. He was a member of the Submarine Defence Commission investigating the 1982 [[Swedish submarine incidents|incursions of foreign submarines]] in the Stockholm archipelago and naval base areas, and often found himself pitted against prime minister [[Olof Palme]]. Bildt was elected leader of the Moderate Party in 1986, succeeding [[Ulf Adelsohn]].

In [[1991 Swedish general election|1991]], the Social Democrats were defeated by a four-party coalition led by Bildt's Moderate Party.