Return on the professorship of Małgorzata Manowska. Double voting, mysterious opinion and “race with time”

OKO.press and “Gazeta Wyborcza” describe on Friday in a joint article, like the first president of the Supreme Court, neo -rings dr. hab. Małgorzata Manowska She got a second chance for the title of professor. It was stated that in the Council of Scientific Perfection – which decides whether to apply to the President to give someone such a title – “a battle is underway” in the Man's case. “It's a race against time – the point is that the nomination can be signed before leaving the Mad President Andrzej Duda,” – we read.

Duda's term ends in August, in less than four months.

The article published in OKO.press, as well as on the website of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, it was explained that “the title of professor is given to the president in Poland”, while “to get it, the candidate or candidate must submit an application and positively undergo a procedure before the advice of scientific perfection”. The last of its stages is the decision of the Presidium of the Council whether to apply to the president or refuse it. The way of taking it is regulated by the statute of the Council in which we read:

As OKO.press notes, Most absolute It means that there must be more votes for the application than the opposite and abstaining together.

As we read in the Act on Higher Education, if the Council reflects the decision to apply to the president, then within 21 days from the date of issuing this decision he submits to him the application for a professor's title to a given person.

Journalists continue to describe that the Council of Scientific Perfection was transferred in February to “Gazeta Wyborcza” – which was the first to write about Manowska's efforts about scientific promotion – that the decision on her professor is only to be ordered at the meeting of the presidium of the RDN on March 31, 2025. “But as we agreed unofficially, the Presidium has already taken care of it – at the meeting on January 27. And here the decision was negative” – ​​it was written in the article.

“In a secret ballot, the referral of the President supported seven people, six were against, one abstained. There was no absolute majority. The members of the presidium came out of the meeting with the conviction that a negative decision was made to the man's professorship” – we read.

“In view of the discrepancy between our sources and the answers of the Council of February, we asked for clarification and providing a copy of the report of January 27. The Council provided us with a document, confirming our information” – indicate journalists.

OKO.press and “GW” also publish the answer of Artur Woźniak, the head of the legal department of the RDN, which reads: “The Presidium of the Council of Scientific Perfection recognized, (…) that as a result of this vote, most votes were not obtained after applying for a request to give Mrs. Dr. Hab. Małgorzata Man's professor, and most votes were obtained against such appearance, i.e. votes against and abstaining.

As OKO.press explains, this means that, according to the Council, in connection with the lack of absolute majority “the authority has not decided and must lead to a situation in which his will” will finally be expressed by obtaining most votes for a given decision. “

According to the publication, in order to “undermine” January voting, “a mysterious opinion has been prepared, which is the result of a plan to carry out a second vote on the Manowska professorship.”

Almost a month after the January vote – February 21 – members of the Presidium received a message from the Council Office with “information that there were” doubts “regarding the decision in the Man's case.” “They were also given to the study with the recommendations of the RDN legal advisers team. The document, which is actually a legal opinion, has no date, it is not known who the author is. However, it results from it that on February 20 a meeting of the RDN legal advisers team took place regarding the decisions of applications for the professor's title” – reads.

Editorial offices OKO.press and “GW” asked to make this opinion available, but they were refused. However, they learned her main theses.

“A team of legal advisers, preparing a draft decision of the Presidium of the RDN on Manowska, 'has been far from doubt' or the result of January voting can be interpreted as an automatic refusal to apply to the President for a title” – informs the portal. “In this case, they recall two decisions of courts, none of which apply to the procedure related to the professor's title” – he adds.

“It turns out that voting regarding the Man's nomination of January 27 raises doubts of counselors as to whether 'means making an administrative decision refusing'. 'In the event of a complaint to an administrative court, this raises a high risk of annulment of such a decision' – warn legal advisers” – we read.

Counselors also present their recommendations for the presidium of RDN. According to them, it should be:

According to OKO.press, the next meeting of the Presidium of the RDN took place three days after receiving the letter – February 24. But the second vote could not be carried out on it.

“However, the protocol from the meeting was adopted on January 27, in which it was actually entered: 'As a result of the vote of the Presidium of the RDN, the RDN did not decide on the President for a professor's title”. According to our information, the protocol was approved routinely at the end of the meeting, it was not loaded into its content, and the participants did not pay attention to the sense of the introduced fragment ” – it was written.

“Gazeta Wyborcza” and OKO.press asked if in other nomination proceedings it happened that the Presidium decided to conduct another vote. “For the current state of knowledge of the Council of Scientific Perfection, the situation in which the result of voting regarding the consideration of the candidate's application for a professor's title would be a 'draw', which would result in a recognition that as part of a given vote, no decision was made, the result of this media, Artur Woźniak, head of the legal department of the RDN, would result.

He also argued that the document received by members of the Presidium was not a legal opinion. “As part of the proceedings regarding the award of the title of professor, Mrs. Małgorzata MANOWSKA, the Council of Scientific Perfection Council or RDN members did not order a legal opinion. In this case, it was not prepared by legal advisers or lawyers. They are not legal opinions, “he assessed.

“The general discussion of persons providing legal services for the Council of Scientific Excedence on the provisions governing the decisions taken by the Council of Scientific Perfection, which to some extent, to some extent, also referred to the case regarding the proceedings of Mrs. Dr. Małgorzata Manowska, has been described. This type

OKO.press claims that “the course of the Manowska's nomination procedure can be a dangerous precedent for the council.” “The adopted interpretation raises the risk that those to whom the Council issued refusal decisions will undermine them” – he adds.

For an opinion on the results of voting, prof. Michał Romanowski from the University of Warsaw, specializing in civil and commercial law. As emphasized, he is one of the best specialists in Poland in the field of Commercial Companies Code, for which, among others RDN advisers refer to their document.

The questions were directed with questions, because the counselors – the portal points out – writing in the opinion about doubts around the January voting, they recalled, among others “Two decisions of the courts, none of which apply to the procedure related to awarding a professor's title.” “One is a resolution of the Supreme Court of January 20, 2022 regarding the interpretation of the Code of Commercial Companies. It is about interpreting resolutions (decisions) of collegiate organs” – he stated. The second is the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of February 16, 2010, which concerns the issue of giving the degree of doctoral.

“Comparing resolutions adopted by the Council of Scientific Perfection to the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of Shareholders of a joint -stock company is a deep misunderstanding,” he assessed. In his opinion, “the facts regarding the request to the President of the Republic of Poland for the granting of dr hab. M. Man's title of the professor is clear.” “The Presidium of the Council issued a negative decision [w styczniu 2025 roku]” – he said.

Editors also describe what happened on the Man's Road in the procedure of applying for a professorship. She had previously received reviewers, three of whom were positive, two negative. “Positive opinions were presented by Prof. Piotr Pogonowski from the University of Economics and Humanities in Warsaw, Prof. Rafał Adamus from the University of Opole and Prof. Sławomir Cieślak from the University of Lodz/University of Jagiellonian University” – donated.

It was noted that “Pogonowski has been a lawyer for years associated with PiS, with the past in services, including CBA”. “During the last rule of PiS he was the head of ABW. From 2020 he was a member of the board of the National Bank of Poland. President Andrzej Duda appointed him to this position, at the request of the President of NBP Adam Glapiński” – reminds OKO.press.

And he adds: “Manowska's candidacy was also assessed by a team of the V Social Sciences of the RDN. The result of a secret ballot is negative: there were 13 votes, against 16, stopping 2”.

“The proceedings regarding her profession have been pending since December 5, 2023. Formally, granting the title does not apply to jurisprudence or public candidate, only the scientific achievements are assessed. However, its promotion in the field of legal sciences raises opposition from the environment. It is difficult to close her eyes to Man's activity, which has been closely cooperating with politicians for years,” writes Ok.press.

Manowska is friends with Andrzej Dudawhich she openly talked about, among others, on “one on one” on TVN24 last autumn. She mentioned that she had known him for 17 years. – We met in the Ministry of Justice, the president was the deputy minister of justice at the time. This absolutely does not mean that I have to pretend that I do not know the president – she said.

This Andrzej Duda He appointed her in May 2020 as the first president of the Supreme Court. She received the nomination for this function from the neo-land Council of the Judiciary shaped under the reform of Law and Justice, which many international experts and institutions accuse politicization due to the election of its members-judges. The judicial nominations she made raises serious legal doubts, and the judges are selected in this way.

In recent years, decisions of the European Courts – the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights also indicated the defectiveness of the procedure for selecting judges with the participation of Neo -KRS.