The main memorial ceremony, titled with the inspiration of Drnovšek's thought "You are not born, you become a human being", was in Zagorje ob Savi, in a city park named after the late president. The people of, Zagorje remember the statesman and their compatriot with respect.

Dr. Janez Drnovšek was a person, a statesman and a politician who certainly belongs among the most important politicians of independent Slovenia. His principles are, at least in some ways, still alive today.

"People were always confused because he was a little mysterious. He never opened up completely. I was astonished myself when I attended some governmental meetings, what kind of authority he had," the former Chancellor of the University of Ljubljana, Stanislav Pejovnik, recalls Drnovšek.

In his words, Drnovšek was not only a politician, but a statesman. "He perceived government leadership as a serious and responsible task. He was able to set priorities within the country and respect them. Education and science were high priorities in his vision of development and he knew that Slovenia's greatest advantage is a highly educated population," said Pejovnik.

"Drnovšek was a people's kind of person. He followed his basic definition of caring for a small person. In this respect he was an extraordinaire politician. However, he disliked worship. It is this modesty that keeps him in the nation's memory," adds Pejovnik.

"To create the good, because only this gives sense to our lives" and "Evil and greed will bury us," are among the many thoughts of Dr. Janez Drnovšek worth following.