Obama in Greece: American Democracy Bigger Than 1 Person

“I firmly believe that the best hope for human progress remains open markets, combined with democracy and human rights”, the outgoing president said.

For his part, Obama said Thursday his hope was that the Brexit negotiations be “conducted in a smooth and orderly and transparent fashion and preserve as closely as possible the economic and political and security relationships between the United Kingdom and European Union”.

“Today more than ever, the world needs a Europe that is strong and prosperous and democratic”, Obama said.

It’s unclear, though, how much help Trump wants or will accept from Obama.

“It allows us to correct for mistakes”, he said.

(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber). German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, welcomes U.S. President Barack Obama for a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016.

President Obama traveled to the birthplace of democracy on Wednesday to praise the concept as a great Greek invention and to remind listeners of its burden – living with the outcome of an election, even when you don’t agree with it. Le Pen has cheered Trump’s surprise victory on Election Day, and Nigel Farage, who spearheaded the British campaign to leave the European Union, has celebrated with the president-elect at Trump Tower.

Speaking in Athens at the end of the first leg of his final foreign tour, Obama says the trend of improving technology had also led to “enormous disruptions” for many countries and communities, as technology and innovation lead to smaller workforces being used to produce goods.

Traveling this week to Greece, Germany and Peru, Obama has tried to reassure USA partners that Trump, in their Oval Office meeting, expressed a “full commitment” to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. He gave a speech Wednesday after touring the Acropolis, the complex of monuments known as the “cradle of democracy”, in which he said democracy was “complicated” and “messy” but created to correct mistakes. “But American democracy is bigger than any one person”. Yet, by Tuesday afternoon, about 6,000 people had gathered in downtown Athens to protest Trump’s election, the war in Syria, the Greek national debt, and America’s existence in general.

US President Barack Obama issued a warning against “crude” nationalism following Donald Trump’s shock election win as he visited Europe on a mission to reassure jittery allies.

The hilltop complex is considered a monument to free thoughts, artistic expression and architectural prowess.

Many Greeks are suspicious of Washington after it helped install a repressive seven-year dictatorship in the country in the 1960s, and trade unions, leftist and anarchist parties have denounced U.S. involvement in wars in the Middle East.

The 5th century B.C. temple is surrounded these days by scaffolding as part of a maintenance project.

The entire site was closed to the public for Obama’s visit, which has played out amid stringent security measures.

“It was one thing what we knew of Donald Trump when he was seeking to become the candidate of the Republican Party, another thing during the election, and now that he is president-elect”, Tsipras said, “and it is quite another when he will be the president of a country that is a major player, a global player”.

In warning against rising nationalism, Obama also argued against support of authoritarian governments overseas, in an apparent effort to discourage countries from turning to Russian President Vladimir Putin and similar strongmen.