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By Matthew Russell Lee, Video

UN GATE, Feb 17 –  As anticipated by Inner City Press last December last, the interference of French national politics in UNESCO’s business can only further undermine the credibility of the UN agency, already reeling in the corrupt UN system of Antonio Guterres. The name of the day: Alexandra de Taddeo, and UNESCO link.

  But first, this response from yet another of Inner City Press' UNESCO sources: "The Chilean Assistant Director General continues to faithfully follow DG Azoulay in transforming UNESCO into a France-controlled organization by installing wherever possible French nationals and their diplomatic allies as heads of office / entity, in order to ensure that decisions made at any level would reflect the French interest and obscure pro-France measures would be implemented in fidelity.

 While member states continue to complain that nationals from over-represented countries such as France, as well as a few others, are taking up more and more staff quotas, thus deteriorating the very principle of the geographical representation of UN, the recent recruitment of staff by ADG Ottone follows firmly Azoulay's instruction but with a slightly different tactic in order to confuse the Member States : recruitment in pairs. Simultaneous appointments of a French national and an African look like a healthy balance between competency  and geographic consideration, but member states should not forget all of those are from over-represented African countries (according to a recently published  geographic representation table on the UNESCO career webpage) and reflect France's staunch interest in French-speaking Africa. This tactic was further strengthened by staff who own dual-citizenship , among the two passports, there is a French one. 

The restructuring of the Culture Sector by Ottone Ramirez allows the heads of entities to report directly to him, and ensures that Azoulay's pro-France instructions are implemented without any contest. The member states  were not even given the opportunity to debate on this restructuring since it was only disclosed to the governing body of UNESCO in an information document. It would hardly be a surprise to find out who these heads of offices and entities in the Culture Sector are : in majority French or hailing from Francophone countries with strong diplomatic ties with France, thus enabling France to push their agenda , including the re-election of Azoulay with the support of these allies." The corruption of the wider UN system under Guterres.

On December 20, 2019 Inner City Press exposed the damages caused by the French DG at UNESCO, a champion of scheming conflict of interests and abuse of power. Inner City Press pointed out that: “in 2019, DG Audrey Azoulay decided to step-up her involvement in the French political life by giving a clear support to the candidate for the  position of Mayor of Paris to her good friend Cedric Villani, who was appointed by DG Azoulay as member of the High-Level Reflection Group created by UNESCO for advising on its transformation. (There is also, of course, Agnes Buzyn).

  This is another but first-ever example of the use and misuse of UNESCO by the Director general Azoulay who is intentionally ignoring all rules and diplomatic practices in order to give a helping hand and international visibility to her political French friend in the elections to be held early next year.  This is also the first juncture for getting into serious trouble with her mentor and protector, the current French President Emanuel Macron.  As political observers in France underline, nowadays the Villani-Griveaux political duel irritates and exasperates Macron to the utmost.

“The President of the French Republic is in a hurry to end the fratricidal confrontation in Paris by the two eminent members of his political movement and he clearly did not appreciate to have Audrey Azoulay taking a side in this unpleasant for him rivalry," one of Inner City Press' political sources in Paris, expert also in FrancAfrique, said.

  The major top question remaining here is, “why the hell DG Azoulay is allowed to get UNESCO involved into French politics to that extend”, said to Inner City Press a member of an EU country here in New York. “Those are clearly political games with huge long-term consequences that will undermine utterly the credibility of UNESCO as a depoliticized organization”.” 

And now, less than two months later, the sex tape showing Emmanuel Macron's political ally and close friend Benjamin Griveaux performing a sex act while 'sexting' a woman put an end abruptly to the above dilemma. The road was cleaned for Villani - or Agnes Buzyn -- despite the new candidacy presented by the political party of Macron. The resignation of Griveaux enraged many in France, but above all it sharply enraged the President Macron. 

Russian dissident artist Pyotr Pavlensky, who famously nailed his privates to Red Square, admitted to publishing the text messages and the explicit video sent by Griveaux to the unidentified woman at that time on Friday. Pavlensky is well known for his acts of protest, including sewing his lips. What is less known, is that the woman, today identified as Alexandra de Taddeo, was working at UNESCO until recently. What were her responsibilities within the Education Sector of UNESCO is yet to be clarified. 

 Also to be clarified by member states, is why the constitutional requirement for any UN staff to stay out of national politics was and is still is superbly and proudly ignored by DG Azoulay since her election to that position. By following her comradeship based narrow political interests, she got involved in a unwanted political machination that was on display last Friday when President Emmanuel Macron's candidate for Paris mayor pulled out of the race after it was admitted he sent explicit content of a sexual intercourse to a woman  not his wife, but is an employee of DG Audrey Azoulay.  Several sources at UNESCO indicate that the situation of Benjamin Griveaux could have been conspired at UNESCO, in relation with Alexandra de Taddeo, by the Cabinet of Audrey Azoulay, initially in order to clean the road for her good friend Cedric Villani (Macron has put forward his health minister Agnes Buzyn.)

   It is a question of days before member states request this week an investigation to find out the exact responsibilities and immediately fire those accountable for this unprecedented fiasco so as to ensure at least one bright spot in the otherwise murky sea of impunity at UNESCO.  We will have more on that. Watch this site. 

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