A global, right-wing petition site, set up by an anti-LGBT Spanish lawyer, is campaigning in Scotland to "protect" statues in Glasgow's George Square and persuade Tesco to reverse its decision to open its Stornoway store "on the Sabbath".

CitizenGO, was set up in 2013 to defend "life, family and freedom across the world" by Ignacio Arsuaga, whose conservative Catholic organisation, HazteOir, has similar aims. It claims to be formed by more than 18 million "active citizens stopping radical lobbies from imposing their agenda on society".

It says it is funded by "small online donations" made by thousands of people. But a 2021 report by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights found it also had funding from wealthy EU and Russian individuals including some of its own board members.

The campaigning organisation says it is working from "a Christian perspective" with an aim of offering "all citizens and organizations a tool to participate in the improvement of our society". But serious concerns have been raised about its "anti-rights" stance, particularly on LGBT and gender issues and reproductive rights.

As well as Arsuaga, its board members include Brian Brown, the American activist and co-founder of the National Organisation for Marriage and president of the World Congress of Families, which opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, birth control and divorce. Previous speakers at its annual gatherings include hard-right leaders Viktor Orbán from Hungary and Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy premier and transport minister.

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Others include Luca Volontè, the founder of Novae Terrae, an Italian foundation that lobbies against abortion, assisted suicide, same-sex marriage and secularism. In 2021 the Italian Christian politician was convicted of accepting bribes from Azerbaijan. He has denied wrongdoing.

CitizenGO are also campaigning in Scotland, launching two petitions last month.

Petitions on local issues

The first petition, titled 'Stand for Stornoway's sacred Sabbath: keep Tesco closed on Sundays' calls on the supermarket chain to reverse its decision to open on a Sunday, when Christian tradition dictates shops on the island of Lewis remain closed. The decision has attracted some local opposition with an earlier petition set-up by local Alasdair MacLeod in October.

The CitizenGO petition, created by its staff, was posted on 13 December last year and has been signed by 8,955 so far. CitizenGO does not publish the names or locations of signatories.

The petition alleges that the decision to open "not only disregards the local culture but also reflects a broader trend of eroding Christian customs across Scotland" adding, "accepting cultural erasure inevitably leads to its decline". It calls on signatories to "stand with us to preserve Stornoway's Sabbath" claiming "these customs are at the heart of our community and culture".

Another CitizenGO petition opposes Glasgow City Council's decision to remove statues from George Square. The council claims this is part of a planned refurbishment of the public square and says it intends for all the statues to return.

However the petition repeats suspicions raised that this is "cover" for the local authority to permanently remove statues of military figures such as Colin Campbell, who led the British army against the so-called Indian mutiny of 1857 - a rebellion against the British East India Company which saw hundreds of thousands of casualties.

It would be useful if they could spell out who is initiating their campaigns - local people or CitizenGo staff - and publish detailed accounts.

Tom Brake, Unlock Democracy

A council working group looking at the city's slavery and colonial legacy also identified a statue of John Moore,who is linked to the slave trade, having suppressed the 1796 slave revolt on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

The CitizenGO petition accuses Glasgow City Council of "can...