Mirela Holy (born 15 December 1971) is a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n politician and a former leader of the

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

Croatian Sustainable Development party (ORaH). She served as Croatia's Minister of Environment from 2011 until 2012, the first and to date only woman to hold this position.

Education

Holy studied ethnology and cultural anthropology, and comparative literature at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

and received her PhD in cultural studies in 2005.

Minister of Environmental Protection

From 23 December 2011 until 13 June 2012 Holy was Minister of Environmental Protection and Nature in the

centre left Centre-left politics lean to the Left-wing politics, left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the Centrism, centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to ...

Government of Zoran Milanović. She resigned her position on 6 June 2012 after an outcry over an email in which she asked manager of the HŽ Holding to consider the possibility of not firing his secretary, because she was an elderly woman with more than 15 years of experience, and was working in HŽ Holding for less than a month.

Mihael Zmajlović Mihael Zmajlović (born 19 January 1978) is a Croatian economist and politician who served as a minister at Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nature at the Cabinet of Zoran Milanović from 2012 until 2016, had previously served as mayor ...

succeeded her as minister.

ORaH establishment

In 2013 she left the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

due to her public disagreement with the party's environmental policy. After her departure from SDP, Holy founded a new party called ORaH (''ORaH'' means ''walnut'' in Croatian) which stands for ''Održivi razvoj Hrvatske'' (Croatian Sustainable Development). She left the party in February 2016.

Activism

She is one of the most recognizable Croatian female politicians and a notable supporter of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

and women's rights. She was also named 'Croatian Homofriend' in 2012.

Private life

Mirela Holy was born to a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

father and a Croatian mother. She has been in a 15-year-long cohabitation with Croatian photographer Siniša Bužan. The couple has no plans to get married.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy, Mirela 1971 births Living people Politicians from Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Social Democratic Party of Croatia politicians Government ministers of Croatia Women government ministers of Croatia