and was buried in his home village of Črešnjevec. His funeral was attended by a huge crowd. The eulogy was delivered by philosopher and his lifelong friend Ivo Urbančič. Legacy Pučnik is considered to be one of the fathers of independent Slovenia. Some, especially in the Slovenian right wing circles, have also called him "Father of Slovenian Democracy". In 2006, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Distinct Merits of Slovenia. In 2007, the Government of Slovenia named the main international airport in Slovenia, the Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport, after him. The decision was criticized by some, including the then President of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek who publicly expressed his respect for Pučnik, but disagreed with the renaming of the airport after him. Author and journalist Spomenka Hribar, Pučnik's former colleague, stated that Pučnik would not have agreed with such renaming, because he was a modest person who disliked public praise and rejected any "cult of personality". A similar statement was made by Pučnik's son Gorazd, who however did not oppose the renaming and was present at the renaming ceremony. The Slovenian liberal conservative think tank Jože Pučnik Institute and the elementary school in his native Črešnjevec are also named after him. At the initiative of Milan Zver, the European Parliament announced on 11 June 2018 that a conference room will bear the name of Jože Pučnik. The official inauguration took place on 28 June 2018 in Brussels, where President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament Manfred Weber, President of Slovenia Borut Pahor, President of Slovenian Democratic Party Janez Janša and initiator Milan Zver were among the honorary speakers. Family of Jože Pučnik was present at the inauguration as well. Personal life Jože Pučnik was the brother of Ivan Pučnik, a farmer and politician, who was initially member of the Communist Party and later also became a dissident and co-founder of the Slovenian Peasant Union in 1989. Jože Pučnik was married twice. After his first release from jail in 1963, he met Irena Žerjal, a young Slovene author from Trieste, Italy, who studied Slavic philology in Ljubljana. They married the same year, when Pučnik was already imprisoned again; Pučnik was not allowed to attend his own wedding, and his brother Ivan had to represent him at the ceremony instead. His first son was born in 1964. When Pučnik was released from prison