Some Mullvad VPN customers tunnel for exit after co-founder donates millions to populist party

SOFTWARE

SEK 5M gift supplied 72 percent of Örebropartiet's annual income, but company insists it was strictly personal

Swedish VPN vendor Mullvad is facing a backlash from some customers after co-founder Daniel Berntsson personally donated SEK 5 million (£385,000, $519,000) to the controversial populist Örebropartiet, which is running in Sweden's national elections for the first time.

Berntsson has this week published a blog post explaining the donation, alongside posts titled "Immigration," "Political individualism," and "Moral individualism." Before that, he had not posted since 2019.

The flurry of posts follows weeks of customer criticism over the donation – for example, Finnish blog Moonwriting's post "I'm done with Mullvad." Another blog, Unutterable, is more direct: "Mullvad funding the far-right and the problem with tech company ownership." The Hacker News discussion thread about the donations has reached a remarkable 1,784 comments so far.

Mullvad was co-founded and is still jointly owned and run by two CEOs, Berntsson and Fredrik Strömberg. Its name, as reflected in the company's logo, is Swedish for "mole." It also offers the Mullvad Browser, a privacy-enhanced fork of Firefox ESR co-developed with the Tor Project. Swedish socialist newspaper Flamman ("The Flame") revealed the donation in its story "High-profile techie gives millions to the Örebro Party."

In a post on X, the company said it was devoted to freedom of speech and tolerance, saying: "It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission, in the same way that someone's opinions on animal rights, taxes or public healthcare policy isn't."

The Örebro Party began as a local party and later expanded across Örebro County, but is now contesting Sweden's 2026 parliamentary election. Its English-language Wikipedia page offers a summary for readers outside Sweden.

It has a mixture of left-leaning and hard-right policies. It wants to make preschool, public transport, and dental care free of charge, reduce politicians' pay, and calls for a 30-hour working week. However, it also advocates for sharply reduced immigration and what it calls "large-scale remigration" – policies intended to encourage or compel immigrants to leave Sweden.

By Swedish standards, Berntsson's donation was unusually large: DonationWatch lists it separately in its Swedish political funding data. Flamman reports that it was the largest single private donation to any Swedish party in 2025, and on its own represented 72 percent of the party's income for the year.

The Register has approached Mullvad for comment. ®