Graz removes Schwarzenegger's name from
stadium
Washington Post/Reuters
December 26, 2005
IENNA (Reuters) - Californian Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian home
town of Graz removed his name from the city's stadium over Christmas, amid
anger over his decision to deny clemency to a death row inmate.
Austrian news agency APA showed the stadium's entrance displaying only its
historical name, "Graz-Liebenau," and quoted an anonymous city official as
saying Schwarzenegger's name had been removed overnight to avoid a public
furor.
Graz city officials were not reachable on Monday, a holiday in Austria.
Left-wing politicians launched a petition drive in Graz to have the town
rename the stadium because the Austrian-born governor allowed the execution of
death-row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams this month.
Williams, an ex-leader of the Crips gang who supporters say had redeemed
himself by campaigning against gang violence, was executed by lethal injection
on December 13 after Schwarzenegger and the courts rejected all of his
appeals.
While conservative mayor Siegfried Nagl opposed renaming the stadium, a city
council majority of social democrats, communists and greens supported it. That
prospect prompted Schwarzenegger to turn the tables and withdraw his name
himself.
On December 19, Schwarzenegger demanded Graz stop using his name on the
stadium and in promotions and returned a "ring of honor" he had been awarded by
city officials in 1999, saying politicians in his hometown appeared to have
rejected him.
Schwarzenegger, a former body building champion and Hollywood star, trained
at the stadium as a young man. It was renamed in his honor in 1997.
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