Governor Ends Austrian Trip, Flies to L.A.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger departed this small city in southeast Austria on Sunday on his way home to California, winding up a brief weekend devoted to serving as a foreign dignitary in his native land.

His stay lasted 30 hours -- just long enough to provide a fresh demonstration that the California governor, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1968, remains not only a national hero but also a political figure here.

Schwarzenegger concluded his stay with a Sunday morning meeting at the Burg, a former imperial palace in the province of Styria. There he spent a few minutes talking state politics -- Austrian and Californian -- with Styrian Gov. Waltraud Klasnic, the first female governor of an Austrian province.

“I love Austria,” Schwarzenegger said in a brief interview Saturday night in Graz. Austrians “know that I love Austria ... and know how much I appreciate my childhood here. Here’s where I learned about staying hungry. I had nothing, and I was hungry to get out of here and do something with life.

“I think all of that contributed to my career and to my way of thinking,” he continued. “This was my foundation.”

Shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday, he began his journey back to California. After a brief stop in Salzburg for what an aide called “personal sightseeing,” Schwarzenegger flew to Los Angeles.

The governor, who on Saturday accused California legislators of arrogance, pledged to return to Sacramento and the state’s stalled budget negotiations today.

Schwarzenegger’s first trip to Austria since being elected was designed around a state funeral in Vienna on Saturday for Austrian President Thomas Klestil, who died last week. President Bush designated the governor to represent him. While that appearance drew major media attention here (Schwarzenegger’s picture was paired with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s in some Austrian newspapers), the governor’s staff did not publicize his side trip Saturday to Graz.

Austria’s second largest city is just 10 minutes from his hometown village of Thal and the city’s soccer stadium is named for Schwarzenegger.

Cool, wet weather kept Graz’s streets mostly empty and Schwarzenegger was not interrupted as he took a quick stroll to dinner Saturday. By the time news of his stay in Graz was published in the Austrian papers Sunday morning, the governor was on his way out of town.

The lack of public appearances provided Schwarzenegger time to huddle with old friends and mentors with political backgrounds.

On Sunday, Alfred Gerstl, who has known Schwarzenegger since he was a teenager, drove the governor in his Mercedes to his morning meeting. Gerstl was leader of the upper house of Austria’s Parliament and is a close friend of the governor.

Political banter was the order of the morning. Klasnic, the Styrian governor, said they had discussed Maria Shriver’s recent children’s book on Alzheimer’s and issues surrounding the disease, a major concern given Austria’s rapidly aging population.

Schwarzenegger also chatted up Graz’s mayor, Siegfried Nagl, about being a conservative chief executive in a government that includes many parties, including communists. Schwarzenegger noted that Nagl, 41, is unusually youthful for an Austrian political figure.

“Here they wait for people to mature, to see the care, the development of the human being, all those things, before they become leaders,” Schwarzenegger said Saturday.

Herwig Hosele, president of Austria’s federal council, the national version of the Senate, said Schwarzenegger sometimes affects Austrian politics by stating his election preferences. The governor became a political issue in February after denying clemency to a convicted killer; executions are banned in European Union countries, and Graz’s city council has threatened to take his name off the soccer stadium if he doesn’t change his position. (Politicians here say the threat is unlikely to be carried out.)

Hosele discounted rumors that Schwarzenegger could run for office in Austria “I think he’s much bigger than president of Austria now,” he said, noting that California, with 36 million residents, dwarfs Austria, which is 8-million strong. Schwarzenegger acknowledged his support for members of the conservative People’s Party in Austria. While he remains an Austrian citizen, he said he does not vote here and was interested in the success of the country, not one party.

“We have a great democracy here,” he said. “The system is running really well. So I am going to support Austria, [but] trying not to get involved too much in the local discussion.”

Joining Schwarzenegger during his meeting at the Burg was former Styrian governor Josef Krainer, who while in office in 1983 approved Schwarzenegger’s request to retain his Austrian citizenship even as he became an American.

Krainer is another politician whom Schwarzenegger calls a longtime mentor and friend. Krainer attended Schwarzenegger’s wedding to Shriver in 1986.

“I am giving him tips on the budget tonight,” Krainer joked after the meeting Sunday.

Schwarzenegger good-naturedly jumped at the offer. “You know, if I have a problem, he’s going to come over and he’s going to give me some insights.”

“He doesn’t need any,” Krainer quickly replied. “Arnold has been learning for a long time.”