"Your will be done"

Bible quote on a poster: Church moves out against the FPÖ

Herbert Kickl finds the criticism from church representatives "inappropriate".

(Bild: Roland Schlager)

Herbert Kickl is promoting himself and his FPÖ with a quote from the "Holy Scriptures". "Your will be done", reads an election poster for the campaign of the self-proclaimed future "People's Chancellor". This causes great excitement in the Church.

Abbot Pius Maurer of Lilienfeld Abbey felt compelled to go on the offensive and stated in a mailing: "'Thy will be done'" - this is a very well-known sentence from the Lord's Prayer and from the Holy Scriptures. To use this sentence slightly altered ('Your will be done') for political election advertising is, in my opinion, in bad taste."

The Christian religion is fundamentally peaceful. Nevertheless, it should not have to put up with everything: "Like the tactless use of a prayer and Bible quote for party propaganda."

On Thursday, the "Alliance for Democracy and Respect" added that Christianity and right-wing extremism are not compatible. The FPÖ is therefore "unelectable", according to alliance spokesperson Stephan Schulmeister. The well-known economist also expressed concern about the use of Christian terms on FPÖ posters. 

Herbert Kickl did not take this criticism lying down for long. When asked by the "Krone" newspaper, he stated: "Your will be done" is a positive message full of optimism and confidence. It summarizes in three words what Article 1 of the constitution actually defines as the core task: "The law emanates from the people. Unfortunately, this taking of the needs, wishes and hopes of Austrians seriously has been increasingly lost in recent years. We want to correct this undesirable development."

Our Father has "great significance" for Kickl
"Thy will be done" refers to the relationship with "our Christian God" and the Lord's Prayer is very important to Kickl as a Christian prayer. "To interpret our deeply democratic confession as an abuse of something completely different is therefore inappropriate."