Anna Maria Corazza Bildt says she spoke out in part because her own parents had been liberated from the Nazis

The Swedish MEP who publicly took Boris Johnson to task over his description of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU as a “liberation” has said she spoke out in part due to her own family’s treatment at the hands of the Nazis.

The British foreign secretary became embroiled in a spat with Anna Maria Corazza Bildt during a panel discussion on the future of the west at a security conference in Munich, during which she accused him of bad taste in his choice of language.

In footage that emerged on Wednesday, Johnson suggested that the MEP was guilty of pomposity, while insisting that he intended to “reclaim the English language”.



Why I challenged Boris Johnson’s description of Brexit as ‘liberation’ | Anna Maria Corazza Bildt Read more

“It’s etymologically equivalent to being freed,” Johnson told the MEP, “and I’m afraid it’s an undeniable fact that we, the UK, has been unable to do, to run its own trade policy for 44 years.”

Corazza Bildt responded: “We are neither occupying you or a prison,” before the panel discussion moved on.

Writing for the Guardian, the MEP, who is married to the former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, said she felt obliged to confront Johnson when it became clear that “several members of the audience” were offended by the foreign secretary’s comments.

“It was not only the use of a word but also the context,” she writes. “It was said at a high-level conference on security in Europe, where the mood was sober and people were concerned. Next to Johnson on the panel was Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, a country at war, with Russian troops on parts of its soil.”

Corazza Bildt, who worked for the UN in Bosnia and Croatia during the Balkan wars, said the use of the word “liberation” was also a personal “red line” for her over which the British cabinet minister should not have crossed.

“The word ‘liberation’ has a strong meaning,” she writes. “For millions of Europeans it’s still vivid and is about freedom, not about free trade. Europe was liberated from military occupation, fascism, nazism and communism.

“This is part of our common history, where the UK played a major role for countries all over Europe in recovering their freedom during the second world war. We should be forever grateful to the brave people of Great Britain for the blood they shed for our freedom.

“My mother was liberated from the Nazis and fascists in Rome, and so was my father in northern Italy. As the longest-serving civilian during the war in Bosnia, I was there when Sarajevo was liberated after five years of siege.”

Corazza Bildt adds: “For me this is a red line. Boris Johnson has said that the UK will leave the EU but will continue to be part of Europe, he should then respect our common history. Lecturing on language as I pointed out our shared history was very dismissive.”

Last month, Downing Street had to come to the defence of Johnson after he warned the French president, François Hollande, to not “administer punishment beatings” in the manner of “some world war two movie” in response to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The former education secretary Michael Gove also defended his former ally in the Vote Leave campaign against those who criticised his use of second world war terminology in criticising Hollande. He described it as a “witty metaphor”.

However, Theresa May reminded her cabinet ministers in a speech at Lancaster House to show restraint by warning “any stray word” could make securing a Brexit deal more difficult.

Corazza Bildt said Johnson needed to move on from the rhetoric he employed in the referendum campaign. “Some of us in Europe feel that the UK is playing a blame game and demonising the EU and this is leading nowhere,” she writes.

“Maybe the time has come to tell the truth on how integrated we are and thus how difficult, complex and problematic the process of leaving and reconnecting will be.

“All of this makes me very sad. In our dangerous world, we should be joining forces across the channel and reaching out to each other to continue to be friends, allies and partners for a better future.”