Mirela Holy

Mirela Holy
Mirela Holy in 2011
Minister of Environmental and Nature Protection
In office
23 December 2011 – 13 June 2012
Prime MinisterZoran Milanović
Preceded byMinistry created
Succeeded byMihael Zmajlović
Personal details
Born (1971-12-15) 15 December 1971 (age 53)
Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia
NationalityCroat
Political partySocial Democratic Party of Croatia (1998–2015, 2019–)
Croatian Sustainable Development (2013–2016)[1]
Alma materUniversity of Zagreb

Mirela Holy (born 15 December 1971) is a Croatian academic, politician and a former leader of the centre-left 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 and received her PhD in cultural studies in 2005.[2]

Minister of Environmental Protection

From 23 December 2011 until 13 June 2012 Holy was Minister of Environmental Protection and Nature in the centre left 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.[3] Mihael Zmajlović succeeded her as minister.

ORaH establishment

In 2013 she left the Social Democratic Party 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).[4] She left the party in February 2016.[5]

Activism

She is one of the most recognizable Croatian female politicians and a notable supporter of LGBT and women's rights.[6][7] She was also named 'Croatian Homofriend' in 2012.

Academic Career

Since 2017, Holy has been a professor at VERN university.[8][9] She has also acted as the university’s head of Cyber Communication and Network Science programme and the Sustainable Tourism Management programme.[10]

Private life

Mirela Holy was born to a Czech father and a Croatian mother.[11] She has been in a 15-year-long cohabitation with Croatian photographer Siniša Bužan. The couple has no plans to get married.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Mirela Holy: Zoran Milanović ne radi dobro i ništa ne čini da to promijeni". www.vecernji.hr.
  2. ^ "dr. sc. Mirela Holy (SDP) - Libela". Libela. Archived from the original on 2012-02-15.
  3. ^ "Ovo je e-mail zbog kojeg je Mirela Holy morala otići". Večernji.hr. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Croatian Ex-Environment Minister Launches Green Party". October 11, 2013.
  5. ^ "Osnivačica ORaH-a Mirela Holy napustila stranku". Index.hr (in Croatian). HINA. 23 April 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  6. ^ Doći ću na splitski Gay Pride jer je to praznik demokracije - Razgovor - Libela. Libela.org. Retrieved on 2013-01-03.
  7. ^ Izbori. Zagreb Pride. Retrieved on 2013-01-03.
  8. ^ Vern University website, More than 600 visitors at the first ‘Night of Knowledge’ , article dated September 18, 2017
  9. ^ Vern University website, VERN’s assistant professor Mirela Holy Ph.D. gave a guest lecture for students of Brittany University, article dated October 1, 2021
  10. ^ Leap Summitt website, Mirela Holy, article retrieved 2024-06-06
  11. ^ "INTERVJU MIRELA HOLY: Milanović mi je napravio najveću uslugu u životu!". Archived from the original on 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  12. ^ "Mirela Holy u NOVOJ GLORIJI otkrila zašto se ne želi udati za svog dečka: Ne vjerujem u taj tip odnosa jer osjećam kao da se on svodi na posjedovanje".