Old World anger: Calif. Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failure to grant clemency to Stanley “Tookie” Williams has raised the ire of the entire European Union. The Associated Press reports that Arnold’s fellow Austrians want to remove his name from a sports stadium in his hometown and some have called for his Austrian citizenship to be revoked.

Capital punishment is illegal throughout the European Union, and many Europeans consider state-sponsored executions to be barbaric. Those feelings were amplified in the case of Williams, due to the apparent remorse they believe the Crips gang co-founder showed by writing children’s books about the dangers of gangs and violence.

Leaders of Austria’s pacifist Green Party went as far as to call for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship – a demand that was quickly rejected by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel despite his government’s opposition to the death penalty.

“Whoever, out of political calculation, allows the death of a person rehabilitated in such an exemplary manner has rejected the basic values of Austrian society,” said Peter Pilz, a Greens leader.

The Greens plan to start up a petition to change the name of the sports stadium in Graz, Schwarzenegger’s hometown. An Austrian Christian Group has suggested changing the name to Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium.

“Mr. Williams had converted, and unlike Mr. Schwarzenegger, opposed every form of violence,” said Richard Schadauer, the chairman of the Association of Christianity and Social Democracy.