Italy's President Asks Prime Minister To Delay Resignation; Aleppo Peace Plan Vetoed at Security Council; Independent Candidate Wins Austrian Presidency; The E.U. in Populist Roller Coaster; Manuel Valls Announces Presidential Bid.
GORANI: Welcome back, everybody. We are live in Vienna, Austria. Thanks for being with us. All right. Let's get you up to date on some of our top stories this hour, and we start with what's happening in Italy. The Italian President has asked the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to delay his resignation in that country until the country's budget is passed. In fact, that would be just before Christmas so he has a few more days left as Prime Minister. Mr. Renzi suffered a huge defeat in Sunday's referendum when voters rejected constitutional reforms that he spearheaded. Also, among the top stories we're following, at least 36 people -- 36, a huge toll -- now known to have died in Oakland, California after a fire tore through a warehouse where a party was happening Friday. Many parts of the warehouse is yet to be searched, and authorities say the death toll will, sadly, almost certainly, rise. Russia and China have vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the halting of attacks in Aleppo. Once again, the resolution proposed a seven-day peace plan. Right before that, representatives from the U.S. and Russia verbally faced off. That as an aid group says aerial attacks and artillery shelling has killed at least 32 people in Aleppo. Our Fred Pleitgen filed this report from the war-torn city.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Driving through a destroyed wasteland that, until recently, was one of the main battlegrounds in Syria. Aleppo's Hanano district was in rebel hands until last week when government forces moved in with crushing fire power. Thirteen-year-old Uday where a rocket landed next to his house and describes the fear he felt (inaudible) raged. "We were very, very frightened," Uday says.</s>UDAY, ALEPPO RESIDENT (through translator): Normally, we would hide in the basement, but luckily, that night, we slept in the first floor because that's when two rockets hit right over here. Uday's little brother, Abdul Kareem (ph) is clearly traumatized by the horrors he's witnessed and still weak from living under siege for weeks with almost no food and water available much of the time. As the rebels lost their grip on this place, many residents fled, trying those escape with their lives and not much more. Now, they're coming back. Some haven't seen their houses for years. Khaled Chobello left in 2012 when the rebels took this district. Now, he's trying to salvage any belongings in what's left of his apartment. "I am very sad because everything is either destroyed or ransacked," he says.</s>KHALED CHOBELLO, ALEPPO RESIDENT (through translator): We found these pictures under the rubble. Even the walls are destroyed, but we will come back here and rebuild.</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): The battle for Aleppo is far from over, but Syrian government forces clearly have the upper hand, taking about half the rebel's territory in the past week alone and continuing to push their offensive with massive fire power.</s>PLEITGEN (on camera): Like in so many districts that have been taken back by the Syrian military, there is massive destruction in this part of eastern Aleppo, but there's no denying the shift in momentum in favor of the Syrian military and also the boost in morale that many of their soldiers have gotten. Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad they believe they could capture all of Aleppo, Syria's most important battleground very soon. "The rebel headquarters was right here," he says.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the loss of this district was a big blow to them. You can see how our shelling is pounding them, and that shows that they're morale is collapsing.</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): Rebels left behind a makeshift cannon when they fled here last week. So far, the opposition hasn't found a way to shore up their defenses in the face of this massive and possibly decisive Syrian government offensive. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Aleppo.</s>GORANI: Well, we return now to the election hear in Austria where the population's desire to remain a part of the E.U. apparently outweighed a populist agenda from the far-right. The left-leaning Alexander Van der Bellen said he would be pro-European President who is open to the world. E.U. leaders must have breathed a sigh of relief as the man he defeated was the anti-immigrant and Euro skeptic Norbert Hofer. The Secretary General of the Austrian People's Party, Werner Amon, is here in Vienna with me. Thanks for being with us, sir.</s>WERNER AMON, SECRETARY GENERAL, AUSTRIAN PEOPLE'S PARTY: My pleasure.</s>GORANI: Just your initial reaction when you learned of the results of the vote on Sunday, was what?</s>AMON: Actually, I believe that it's quite a good signal to the Austrians and to the world that we decided to elect a president who is open to the world, who is pro-European. He is pro-European Union. And this is, from my point of view, a good result.</s>GORANI: So you were happy with the result. However, I want to say 47 percent, just about, of Austrians voted for Norbert Hofer. The Freedom Party is quite popular in opinion polls. There are elections in 2018. This isn't finished, isn't it?</s>AMON: This is true. I mean, polls are one hand and real elections are the other hand. And with this real election, we saw there is at least now a difference from about 8 percentage and this is quite a good result, I guess.</s>GORANI: There's still a degree of dissatisfaction among Austrians. Unemployment is low compared to other western European countries or, I should say, compared to western European countries like France, Italy, or Spain, but it's still higher than Austrians would like. There is still dissatisfaction with the number of refugees that this country let in. How will things need to change, do you think, in order for Austrians to sort of feel a little bit happier with their government?</s>AMON: Actually, the government has to do more constructive positions and deliver more good results to the people. As you know, we do have a coalition government with Social Democrats and the conservative People Party, and it's not that easy. The one come more from the center left and the other came from the center right, so it is not always that easy to bring all the positions together.</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>AMON: On the other hand, you a tendency all over the western industrialized world that the people are not that satisfied, I guess, with the establishment, with the so-called establishment.</s>GORANI: Clearly, the parties that are currently in charge of the government, neither of those produced the presidential candidates, one of whom ended up winning. What's going on there? Why such a rejection of establishment parties? Where has the failure been from them?</s>AMON: This is a very difficult question. If it were that --</s>GORANI: But it's the only question.</s>AMON: Yes, but it's not that easy to answer that question.</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>AMON: From my point of view, it has to do that we really have reached a very high level of social security, and present governments cannot really promise anymore that we get something on the top on this very high level that we already have reached in social security, especially here in central Europe.</s>GORANI: OK. I've got to ask you one last question about the E.U. You saw what happened in Italy. There was a rejection of Matteo Renzi's reform proposals. You saw what happened with Brexit and all this anti- establishment far-right candidates from Marine Le Pen all the way to Nigel Farage saying, you know, that they want Austria to go in that direction against Europe? Are you concerned for Europe as it projects?</s>AMON: Actually --</s>GORANI: Will it survive?</s>AMON: We should not concern too much. We should be brave, I guess. And I guess we should force the European Union and its institution to concentrate on the things, what should be really done on this multilateral level, not to focus on, you know, tiny things, what they're going to go regulate in each country, for example. So I really believe that the European Union has a future if the Union is concentrating --</s>GORANI: It will survive? Will it survive?</s>AMON: Definitely, there's no doubt about it.</s>GORANI: OK. Thanks very much, Werner Amon, the Secretary General of the Austrian People's Party, for joining us on CNN. We appreciate it. Thank you.</s>AMON: Thank you.</s>GORANI: Well, the result in the Austrian presidential elections gave a rare glimmer of hope to the leaders of the European Union. We were just discussing that. However, just hours later, Italy's pro-E.U. Prime Minister Renzi said he would resign after losing a referendum on his country's constitution. The move sparked fears, once again, over the rise of populism, this time in the Euro zone's third largest economy. Nic Robertson takes a look at all of Europe's political turmoil.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Italy's Prime Minister resigns. Europe's roller coaster relationship with the E.U. takes a dive. Trump-type populism shaking up Europe's politics. Hours earlier, Austria elected a new president. Europe leaders rejoiced. Austrians rejected the nationalist candidate with Nazi connections. France's President declaring the Austrian people have chosen Europe. What they Austrians chose, though, was no mainstream politician. Alexander Van der Bellen is Western Europe's first ever Green Party president, is pro-E.U. But this is the first time neither of Austria's two principal political parties have not held the presidency. In Italy, Renzi, who tried to reform the country bloated bureaucracy and boost the economy, is victim of leftists and nationalists who won out of the European Union. France's hard right nationalist, Marine Le Pen, who is running for president next year, was quick to grab gains for her own campaign from Renzi's losses. She tweeted, "The Italians have moved away from Renzi and the E.U. We must listen to this thirst for freedom and protection of nations." At E.U. H.Q. in Brussels, finance ministers dismiss worries of a hit on the Euro, but Italy's struggling banks may yet need Brussel's help bailing them out. And for Italy's populace, that's a contentious issue. Meanwhile, here in London, more discord. The Supreme Court is deciding whether or not British lawmakers could potentially block Brexit. It'll add to the growing uncertainty about the future of the European Union. Passions here, for and against Brexit, are high and every indication now, similar sentiments are spreading. Nic Robertson, CNN, London.</s>GORANI: Well, the populist sentiments that are spreading across the West that Nic Robertson was speaking about continue to bring uncertainty to the global economy, among other things. Ian Bremmer is an expert on how political changes affect market and he joins me from New York. First of all, I want to ask you about, there was really just two different scenarios that played themselves out in Europe. On the one hand, Italy with the rejection of Matteo Renzi's proposed reforms. But on the other hand, Austria, pretty decisively, rejecting the far-right candidate. What did you make of both results?</s>IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, EURASIA GROUP: Well, I guess, I'd spin them a little differently. I'd say in Austria, with the first presidential elections several months ago, you'd already had the rejection of the two main establishment parties. This was populist either way, frankly. They didn't go at the extreme far-right candidate, but they certainly rejected the establishment. And you have an independent former Green that now has that post in Austria. In the case of Italy, you know, frankly, it's not usual that we can rely in history on a strong decisive Italian leader. We got one with the former Mayor of Florence and Matteo Renzi, but, you know, his ability to maintain strong populist support for a decisive set of political and economic reforms would have been extraordinary at any time in Italy, never mind the time now when you have such strong populism. He tied it to his own popularity. He lost. Now, Italy's going back to a caretaker government. You're going to have a status quo ante of a series of very weak Italian coalition governments. So I do think the headlines are a little bit misleading on this one.</s>GORANI: OK. But let me ask you about the reaction, though, because there were predictions, dire predictions, that a "no" win in Italy would lead to, you know, bank stocks tanking, to the Milan Index taking a dive, to the Euro, this and that and the other. It didn't happen at all. In the same way, markets didn't necessarily react negatively to a Donald Trump win last November. Initially, they did but then they quickly recovered and now, they're again record territory. What's going on there? Investors don't seem concerned.</s>BREMMER: No, no, no. I mean, investors are very near term. Investors don't mind that Donald Trump might be subverting U.S. leadership and the world are having problems with global trade or the U.S.-China relationship. That's later. Investors don't mind that, in several years' time, you have could have a disaster from the actual Brexit conversation. For now, things are OK. The Italian banks, you're going to have a government that will be able to recapitalize if they for individual problems. So, I mean, there's nothing imminent and urgent that I think the stocks need to react to. And certainly, in the case of the United States where we're hitting this record highs, domestically, the economic team for Trump can walk and chew gum, maybe not simultaneously, but at least one after the other. And, you know, they are very pro-market and pro-industry, so I don't think we should be surprised that the markets are up. The question is, what's the longer- term trajectory and sustainability of the government policies that we see as a consequence? And you don't look to the markets for that. You have to look to the livelihood of the people.</s>GORANI: Let's talk a little about the long-term outlook for the U.S. I mean, we're seeing the President-elect already break every single diplomatic rule, not least with his conversation on the phone with the President of Taiwan very much angering China, tweeting out attacks against the press, and threatening U.S. companies with 35 percent tariffs on their goods if they move their factories overseas. Looking just at the first few days of post-President-elect Trump victory, what should we expect in the future?</s>BREMMER: So in the same way that the expectations are reasonably positive, at least short term, on the economic side, when you look at international relations, you have to be unnerved and there, go around the world. If you talk to the foreign ministers and the heads of state of American allies, they're deeply concerned that they can't count on the United States, and particularly a United States lead by President Trump. They were worried about this under President Obama. Those worries have grown, certainly in terms of international trade, certainly in terms of his calls for America first and that allies need to do more or the U.S. isn't going to be there, and now also in terms of potentially picking a fight with the single most important bilateral relationship in the world, that of the United States with China. And while it's pretty clear that Trump didn't really know what he was doing when he spoke to the Taiwanese President, because Kellyanne walked it back, his senior adviser, and said he wasn't trying to make policy, but still the tweets that came on the back of that saying, hey, these guys are manipulating currency, you know, so they're putting taxes on our products, and they're expanding their military. I mean, everything that we've seen from Trump, not just on the campaign but since he's become the President-elect, seems to be goading to pick a fight with these guys before he has either Asia's strategy, American allies in the region on his side, or a Secretary of State designee, I would say that's giving a lot of people great cause for concern.</s>GORANI: All right. Ian Bremmer, as always, a pleasure having you on the show.</s>BREMMER: You're welcome.</s>GORANI: Thanks so much for your analysis.</s>BREMMER: You're welcome.</s>GORANI: All right. To France now and we were talking about important elections. We had the referendum in Italy and, of course, here in the Austrian presidential election where there's a big important event on the calendar next year, and that is the presidential election in France. The Prime Minister there says he is ready to become the country's next president. Manuel Valls has announced his bid to become the Socialist Party's candidate in the general election. He'll first face off with the members of his own party in a January primary. And this all comes days after President Francois Hollande announced he would not seek a new term. Valls has a tough task ahead. He needs to unite his party after Hollande's unpopular administration. Now, remember, Hollande's popularity rating, at one point, dipped to 4 percent, a record low. Now, he listed, Manuel Valls, what he wants to see in France's future. Listen.</s>MANUEL VALLS, PRIME MINISTER OF FRANCE (through translator): I want an independent France. Independent, inflexible on its values when facing the China of Xi Jinping, the Russia of Vladimir Putin, the America of Donald Trump, and the Turkey of Recep Erdogan.</s>GORANI: All right. Positioning himself internationally there, Manuel Valls. Don't forget to check out our Facebook page, facebook.com/holagoranivienna, and for some of the show's best content. We'll take a quick break, and when we come back, we have more live from Vienna. Stay with us.