Jean-Claude Juncker fired a vicious parting shot for Boris Johnson accusing him of telling "lies" during the 2016 EU referendum campaign.
The outgoing European Commission President said he regretted staying out of the campaign after David Cameron told him his intervention would be counterproductive.
Juncker said that had been a big mistake, adding: “So many lies were told, including by current prime minister, Boris Johnson , that there needed to be a voice to counter them.”
Juncker also pointed the blame for the 2016 result at pro-EU politicians, specifically “my friend” Tony Blair .
He said the British, , including the former Labour leader, had always seen the EU as an economic project and had shunned political union. “If you stick to that narrative for over 40 years, it should not come as a surprise when people remember it during the referendum.”
It builds on comments he made in a speech at a thinktank event at the end of October.
Juncker said the papers had spouted "nonsense" and "bulls**t" "day after day" for 46 years.
He said the press had portrayed Britain as "not really in Europe… [only being there] for economic and internal market reasons".
Mr Juncker also claimed to have predicted the result of the 2016 referendum.
He told German newspaper Der Spiegel: "I was one of those early on who was firmly convinced that this referendum would go wrong.
"When then-Prime Minister David Cameron told me on the sidelines of the 2014 G-20 summit in Brisbane that he really wanted to hold a Brexit referendum, I told him: "You're going to lose it." I made a bet with the European commissioner of British nationality at the time, Jonathan Hill: I get a pound from you if the Remainers lose, you get a euro if you win. I have that pound today.
In a wideranging interview with the German newspaper the outgoung Eurocrat defended his exuberant greetings, with kisses for autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“My staff sometimes warns me not to hug this or that person. But I’ve been kissed by Erdoğan, so I kiss him, too. I kissed Putin and I was kissed by Putin. In either case, it certainly didn’t hurt Europe.”
Asked about persistent rumours that he drank too much, Juncker said “such false claims hurt my family more than me”.
