rather damning of francois fillon.e see one of us's cronies informing the syrian president is dousing aleppo in a toxic liquid and replies, "i will call you back in a minute." -- hundreds ofc european jihadist recruits are making their way back home. >> under the headline "back from jihad." some 200 french citizens have abandoned the battlefields of iraq in syria and are now returning to france. the return of these radicalized individuals is deeply worrying for french authorities. it is difficult to know how best to deal with them. do you simply try to find a way to imprison them or should the state push ahead with attempt to the radicalized them -- de radicalize them? has not saidond whether he will be running for reelection in may. one paper is convinced that it is only a matter of time. hollande.s >> you will be pressing forward for a second term. the papers sources claim hollande will not be taking part in the left-wing primaries. that is a decision that would wreak havoc among the french the premisedlly if or deci

le figaro has published a piece by francois fillon. haxie: it has. they accuse him of wanting to dismantle france's famous health insurance system, so this is really his response to that criticism. france's system of social security was once upon a time in the world, and under him it would be against "liberation" has been having some fun with this story. this headline reads, "now is the time for backtracking." on the francois hollande 2012 campaign slogan, "now is the time for change." all, just weeks ago, francois fillon promised a radical shakeup of the system. he suddenly backtracks on that. let's leave politics for an article you pulled out of "le about" an article discrimination in the workplace. >> when applying for jobs, there .s widespread discrimination -- we haveere sent more north african sounding names. all candidates, the fake candidates, were similarly qualified. 47% of the french sounding group got positive responses. that dropped to 37% among the second group. genie: when it comes to you and people in particular, they are hardly compe

and in france, how about francois fillon becoming president of the republic? it's a guess. yes. but the important thing here is not francois fillon, but that marine le pen is not going to become president. this is a prediction and a hope. or perhaps a hope first and a prediction, because we know we can't make predictions any more! and it's also, i think, the end of the french left, a bit like what happens in the uk. i predict, whoever it is, the french left candidate will clock less than 10% on the first round. i think they are in the wilderness for the next—generation. that's true pretty much across western europe, is it not to the centre left? it is, yes. prediction? now, i don't know where you're going to go with this! laughter i'm just going to cough and pass it back! it'll be an interesting year. what we learned this year is to expect the worst, and hope for the best. next year it's going to be the same thing all over again. in the united states, people are going tojust be amazed, i think, over and over again by what's happening in washington. outside of the united sta

francois fillon could go up against another right-wing candidates in the second round of the elections. a to stop that from happening and defend france's social model, he says the left needs to unite and hopefully will unite behind him. anchor: now he is actively disliked by the west wing -- by the left wing of his own party. how is he going to overcome that? valls has a difficult job. --is seen as to pro-business too pro-business. i spoke to a few locals in the tower where he was mayor. he was an extremely popular mayor. since he has become prime minister he has drifted too far to the right. that is something he is really going to have to work on. he's going to have to persuade people like that he is a true left-wing candidate and values left wing values. he is up against several other candidates. there are candidates who are taking part in the january primary. it is an uncertain moment for italy, where prime minister matteo renzi says he is stepping down after he lost a referendum on constitutional reform. the country's youngest ever leader stated his political future on winning the

he wants to stand against francois fillon. he said he wants to protect our social model and make sure we can stand together as a nation again. he wants to bolster education. >> who do we think will succeed him as prime minister in france? >> that is still to be seen. a couple of candidates that are being named in the french media includes the current interior minister. it is unlikely that francois hollande is going to bring him in. he is likely to bring in somewhere -- someone close to him so that someone else in the party, including manuel valls, does it have more influence. >> lisa, thank you very much. after more than six months of fighting, libyan forces say they have taken full control of syria -- the city on the border of syria. the troops mainly from the western city of ms. rodda began the assault in may. is resisted using suicide car bombing, snipers, and improvised explosive devices. the longtime uzbech prime minister has been elected as the country's prime minister after the death of the countries strongman. he was a

right candidate and conservative candidates and according to all the polls the a face-off one and francois fillon so the a major task to find a candidate and be a contend.e that can >> mark, thank you very much. cross to the united states where donald trump has started his so-called thank you tour. he took to the stage in ohio in his first imagine public his election.ce at the start of his address some a led for the need to unite divided nation. he returned to the brash tone campaign.d his he bragged about the size of his victory and criticized the y. the crowd chanted build the wall and lock her up fact that donald trump says the wall could be part fence and he has no desire pursue criminal charges against his former rival hillary clinton. surprise de the announcement for his choice for defense secretary as former mattis.james andrew hillyer has the details. u.s. president-elect making a key announcement in style.l trump at a rally packed with loyal support e supporters. we are going to appoint mad dog mattis as our secretary of defense. but we are not announcing it until monday so don't tell an

. >> about francois fillon and the right-wing primaries -- both the spectators and the musicians are convicted criminals. gallery?to go to hello? everything set? >> yes. 1 -- 2, genie: it certainly takes a lot of people to get the news out to you around the world. joining me on the set for my business desk is charles pellegrin. how long have you been here? charles: seven years. genie: brexit is high on the agenda. there was quite a splash made. saying that the u.k.'s negotiating posture was not conducive to a smooth and orderly brexit. he implied britain wanted to have its cake and eat it, too. many have all the benefits of the e.u. without the obligations. philip hammond stressed that it was in the interest of the e.u. to offer the u.k. the best possible deal when it comes to market access because most e.u. companies rely heavily on london for financial services. hammond did not exclude having to continue paying into the e.u. budget. dark of going into a negotiation, we are prepared to with ourny structure european partners. that in the end, we will only do is important's interest.

francois fillon is much more supportive of putin. there, too, you could see a big difference.king currently at live pictures of the event. the audience prepared for the arrival of mr. vladimir putin and we will bring you that a little bit later on. henry, thank you very much indeed. we will let you monitor what is happening in moscow. a live picture coming to you from moscow ahead of this annual address, delivered by vladimir putin. stars are aligning. takingtrump, mr. fillon over in france would be a significant shift. it would be interesting to see how the spending round develops from here and how the european military develops from here. all of that something vladimir putin is thinking a great deal about right now. we just had manufacturing data. a little softer on that front. over theess, the focus next few minutes will be on what happens in moscow. the surveillance team will bring you all of the latest. maybe we will get a chance to listen in. i will join the radio team as well. you can listen to bloomberg here radio now.n dab this is bloomberg. ♪ francine: oil soars abov

another interesting development is the centre—right candidate francois fillon for the french presidential—russian. he has queried whether the west should still impose sanctions. he met angela merkel on the fringes of a meeting in brussels this week. we could be looking at a situation in france next year where we have a pro russian president, either if the centre—right candidate gets in, or marine le pen. we also have a pro—russian president in the united states. and he may have been elected partly because of putin. the leaks obviously came from putin, and the false information which got put into the ecosystem. even if he wasn't elected, his relaxed attitude to hacking with the cia saying... it is unprecedented. it is unbelievable that he has not only been negative but he said he does not trust the american intelligence agencies to give a fair assessment of what is happening. i agree that his own position on his own intelligence services is odd. not odd! his position on russia per se is odd and his position with his own intelligence services is deeply worrying but i see no evidence that ru

we learned this week the republican candidate will be france will feel -- francois fillon from the conservativean party. he calls himself a thatcherite, so a reformist conservative. night,other hand, last francoise lalonde, the sitting president, surprisingly ,nnounced -- hollande surprisingly announced that he would not be running next year. the first time a sitting president has not gone for a second term in more than 50 years. it is starting to become clearer what happened. the polls suggest it will be illon and marine le pen going to the second round. alan crawford, breaking down the latest news on france and looking ahead to the austrian presidential elections. coming up in battle of the charts, although small caps on been a big winner since the election, investors are starting to brace for declines. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: it is time for our global battle of the charts, where we look at some of the most telling charts of the day and present them to you our viewers. you can always access these on your bloomberg. kicking things off in new york is our stoxx reporter joe p oley. >> today

the program of francois fillon, who is considered conservative, right-wing programs may be instead oftreme views on social issues with the european union. vonnie: turning to president-elect donald trump's latest cabinet picks. tom price is slated to be the next secretary of health and human services. price could possibly oversee the repeal of the affordable care act next year, one of the top legislative or days for republicans. >> this is a congressman that was also a supporter of donald trump. he did appear at the gettysburg address of sorts, with vice president elect pence as well as trump. i'm sorry, outside of philadelphia. they talked about repealing obama care. and obamacare was a big reason why many midwestern states went for donald trump. david: breaking news, the president-elect's cabinet is coming together. steve and wilbur ross confirmed for the cabinet. joining us now from washington for an update on the transition is our bloomberg political reporter. >> they are being put in place as we get an idea of how the trump administration is going to be treating foreign trade deal

the current presidential front runners are marine le pen and the republican, francois fillon.unite the left. can he? >> unfortunately, probably not. he cannot unite the left because there is a hard left around one tebow in france. the question is whether he will be the candidate for the socialists. he has a good chance. in one way i find it reassuring , that at least the sort of leading candidate of the centerleft is a reformer. france seems to be yearning for reform, but the centerleft field seems to be splintered. alls and then the independent probably the , centerleft does not have much of a chance to make it into the final runoff off of the presidential election anyway. mark: german chancellor angela merkel was reelected as the christian democratic union chairwoman with 89.5% support as the delegates. it is the lowest level support she has received in her chancellorship. >> it is not a great result for her. i mean, to get less than 90% for the first time since she has been a sitting chancellor at a time when she has absolutely no opponent is a very poor result. on the othe

. >> bill mentions francois fillon in france. this coming election in france is a very important one because he is pushing the most aggressive free market reform that i have seen come out of a french candidate in my lifetime. you just never see that in france where they have socialists and the right is almost as socialist as the left. that's an alternative to the blood and soil nationalism that marine lapin is pushing. >> it will be a key election in that respect, paul, because here is the paradox of populism. by and large it can be summed up as people saying, i'm mad as hell, and i'm not going to take it anymore except when the government starts suggesting that they pair back, say, labor regulations and rules that protect people. and at that point, a lot of these mad as hell people say, whoa, wait a minute. i'm not giving up any of the stuff that protects me. let somebody else take the burden. >> i'm not giving up my entitlement payments. >> spain, italy, france, it has been the same thing reflected. so that election will be ver

instead, we saw francois fillon win. referendum taking place in italy that you mentioned. prime minister rensi has said if it doesn't go through he will resign. that leaves the space for potentially pepi degreo who's the leader of the opposition, an entertainer, a populist. this is a narrative we're seeing playing out over and over again. we have an important election coming up in austria. again, it looks like someone quite far to the right, a populist, may also seize the momentum. the european union is facing its most serious existential crisis since its inception and what it speaks to on a broader scale i think is what we saw here in the united states as well, which is a ground swell movement, a shift in the zeitgist and it is a tetonic shift in the way people feel about the establishment and their unhappiness in the way their country is moving. >> arwa, you're based in istanbul but you're traveling the middle east all the time. what was the reaction when the people you're working with heard that donald trump would be

>> it might be if from fluffy on -- it might be if francois fee fillon winds. equidistantn has with the united states and russia and france somewhere in the middle. she will challenge the european union. she already announced that france would pull out and exit the european union, similar to the brits. if she winds this election, we will see a threat to all conventional wisdom with a totally uncertain outcome. host: jane, republican line. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. how does the fact that trump owes money to foreign banks assess the policy of those governments? follow the money here. i am very concerned about that. they have a leverage over him. that is a very good question. i think everybody is concerned about that and i was one of the reasons trump received a delegation from japan in the under one of those foreign politicians who were first to congratulate him and andhe asked his daughter son to join the conversation because he has a private interests besides the policy interest. i think the first good step is the he reject things from