"I'm going to Parliament, which means that I'm staying in politics, and yes, I regret that I'm leaving my ministerial position," Holy said at a press conference when asked if she was sorry to be leaving this way.

Holy tendered her resignation on Thursday after an email was leaked to the public showing that Holy had asked the CEO of the Croatian Rail (HZ) company, Rene Valcic, not to fire the wife of their party colleague.

When asked if she thought that Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic should have stood behind her, Holy said it was irrelevant what she thought now. "The fact is that what I did has caused political damage to the Government of the Republic of Croatia and that's why I have tendered my resignation."

When asked if Milanovic had asked her who might succeed her at the helm of the Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection, Holy repeated that she did not want to discuss her talks with the prime minister. "In any case, the decision on who will be the next minister of environmental and nature protection will be made by the prime minister," she stressed.

At the start of the press conference, held in her office, Holy repeated that she had submitted her resignation to the prime minister on Thursday because her "ill-advised email to Mr Valcic, CEO of the HZ Rail company, has caused great political damage to the Government of the Republic of Croatia."

When asked if she had any idea who made her email message public, given that she had sent it three months ago, Holy said that in her work she had antagonised many interest groups and that she would not want to speculate which one could have done it.

When asked if she thought that it was not accidental and that it may be a continuation of a campaign against her, Holy said she was trying to be objective towards herself, but that the fact was that each of her moves was under special scrutiny in the media. When asked if she would send that email today, she said she would not.