Greece violence: Protesters clash with police in Athens during Obama visit

They were pushed back by police using tear gas and stun grenades as they tried to breach barriers blocking off the city centre.

Barack Obama has warned that a backlash against globalisation is boosting populist movements both at home and overseas and called for a “course correction” so the benefits of an increasingly interconnected world are shared more equally.

President Barack Obama tours the Acropolis Museum with Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, president of the Acropolis Museum, Nov. 16, 2016 in Athens, Greece.

As President Barack Obama delivered his speech on the virtues of democracy, he shared that this year’s election is a great reminder of the governing values and their importance.

Obama’s next stop in his final Europe tour is Germany, before he hands over the presidential power to Donald Trump on January 20. “We can not simply look to austerity as a strategy”.

“The lesson I draw – and I think people can draw a lot of lessons, but maybe one that cuts across countries is we have to deal with issues like inequality”, Obama said at a Tuesday news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He then headed for Germany.

The speech, given before a supportive crowd in the newly opened Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, represented the third time in as many days that Obama has sought to grapple with the wave of political discontent that swept Donald Trump into the White House last week and has roiled politics in Europe as well as other regions of the world. “But I argued that the current path of globalization demands a course correction”, Obama said.

“Today, more than ever, the world needs a Europe that is strong and prosperous and democratic”, he said. However, President Obama can not deny his perturbations over the future administration; he still encourages the Democrats to respect the result because “that is how democracy works”.

It was also the clearest sign yet that the president did not accept Trumps election as a repudiation of his policies, despite Trumps ardent rejection of almost every piece of Obamas legacy.

All manners of protest had been banned in the city over Obama’s trip, with police parking buses along the USA president’s route.

Obama said distrust of elites and governing institutions had fed success in the U.S. election for Senator Bernie Sanders, who challenged Hillary Clinton in a drawn-out Democratic primary contest, and for Trump, a former reality TV star who bested the former secretary of state in the USA presidential race.

Obama said that Trump, who made racist, sexist, and nationalist comments in his campaign rallies, had “a very different world view”. He renewed his pledge to ensure a peaceful transition despite his differences with Trump.

Obama insisted that people deserve the right to choose their governments and leaders.

Obama’s words are being watched closely by world leaders who see parallels between Trump’s election and the rise of far-right movements in their own countries amid continued economic anxiety.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won elections past year on what critics say was a populist platform, though one on the left of the political spectrum.