"Mr. Prime Minister (Zoran) Milanovic, I am resigning as environmental protection minister given that I have politically harmed the Croatian government with my imprudent email to Mr. Rene Valcic, president of the Croatian Railways (HZ) Managing Board," Holy wrote in her letter of resignation.

Croatian Television published an email on its website on Wednesday in which Minister Holy asked the HZ Managing Board president to consider a possibility to keep at another position a female employe, who was hired following a public call for applications during the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) regime as a secretary in the office of the president of the HZ Managing Board.

Holy told a Croatian Television political talk show on Wednesday evening there was nothing contentious about the email she sent from her party email address to the HZ Managing Board president because, as she said, she had not intervened for anyone be hired but she "appealed that the lady in question not be exposed to political harassment".

"I did not intervene for anyone to be hired, I did not intervene for anyone to be promoted within the system. This is a lady who was hired following a call for application during the HDZ-led government and who worked as a secretary of the HZ Managing Board president and who was under the impression that her colleagues perceived her as a person who was appointed to that position for political reasons," Holy said.

Holy stressed she only asked that the lady in question was not exposed to political harassment. "That's all I asked. I appealed as a human being, not as a minister, I did not send that message form the official government email address, but from my party email address to my party colleague. That's all," Holy told Croatian Television last evening.