Graz Green Party Prompts Schwarzenegger to Tell Hometown to Stop Using His Name

National Politics

After last week’s execution of Tookie Williams, the Greens in Graz started a movement to strip California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger of:

• his Austrian citizenship;
• the honor of having a local sports stadium bear his name; and,
• the “ring of honor” given to him in 1999 for having put Graz “on the map.

This was a movement probably doomed to fail. Some 77% of Grazers support the governor so efforts to hang this over his head shouldn’t be considered likely to succeed.

But, that didn’t stop the Governator from pre-empting the move. Yesterday, he sent a pretty pointed letter to the Mayor of Graz which:

• recinds his permission to use his name on the sport stadium;
• recinds his permission to use his name to promote tourism; and
• announces that he is returning the ring of honor since it no longer holds any honor.

Copies of the letter are available in the original German. But, since you probably don’t read German, here is an English translation:

Mr. Siegfried Nagl
Mayor, City of Graz
City Hall
A-1010 Graz
Austria

Dear Mister Mayor,

As you know, I was always proud to hail from Graz and my pride in my hometown continues. To me, Graz will forever be the place that nurtured me in my youth.

When I was asked in 1997 to give the former Stadium Liebenau my name, I agreed for several reasons. Firstly, I trained there as a young man. Secondly, I had hoped that my international name recognition as an athlete and actor would in turn possibly make Graz more famous and increase its tourism business. Thirdly, requests by close friends in Graz moved me to accept the honor. And fourth, I was naturally proud to be immortalized in this way by my hometown.

I have now heard that the Graz City Council appears poised to decide to rename the stadium on January 19th, 2006. The reason for this action is apparently a decision I reached as Governor of California. I rejected the clemency plea of a rightfully condemned four-time murderer after thorough review and as a result, he was executed according to the laws of this state.

In all likelihood, during my term as Governor I will have to make similar and equally difficult decisions. In order to spare the responsible politicians of the City of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenauer Stadium. You will receive related correspondence from my legal counsel shortly. I expect the lettering to be removed by the end of 2005, and in the future, the use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is no longer allowed.

I have also learned that a proposal has been proffered to rescind from me the city’s ring of honor. It was a beautiful day in 1999 when I received the ring at City Hall and I assumed at the time that it would be a token of sincere friendship between my hometown and me. Since, however, the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail.

In conclusion, I would like to once more expressly emphasize that I will remain with all my heart a Grazer, a Steierer and an Austrian. I look forward to visiting Graz again as soon as time allows.

With best wishes,

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Source: Governor’s press office via the Chicago Tribune

All in all, this is a brilliant political move that the Greens probably weren’t expecting. They were likely expecting that they would get to show their indignation at a politician actually doing his job in accordance with the wishes of the people who elected him. But, they probably expected the Governator to respond with a few well-chosen words, but not to beat them to the punch while simultaneously pulling the tourism money associated with the use of his name.

Hopefully the Austrian voters in Graz will remember this when there are more tourism jobs lost from a stagnant economy with an already staggering 10.9% unemployment rate.

MickC @ December 20, 2005