Church raps Austria's far-right presidential candidate for invoking God
VIENNA - Austria's Protestant church criticised the far-right candidate for president on Monday for using the phrase "so help me God" on his campaign posters, saying his party's anti-immigrant stance ran against Christian principles.
Norbert Hofer, the anti-immigrant Freedom Party's (FPO)presidential hopeful, uses the line in the hope it will help persuade voters to make him the European Union's first far-right head of state in a run-off election on Dec. 4.
The result of a previous run-off in May, which the 45-year-old eurosceptic narrowly lost to former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, was annulled due to irregularities in counting postal ballots.
Hofer is a former Catholic turned Protestant who has said he would not swear in a female minister wearing an Islamic headscarf.
