Extracted with firefox reader mode and machine translated:

Internal crisis at Mullvad: “Drags down the company” Jacob Lundberg 4–5 minutes

Last week, Flamman was able to reveal that tech profile Daniel Berntsson is the main financier of the Örebro Party, which is running for parliament with demands for “large-scale remigration”.

The news was presented to employees late on Friday evening, and according to several sources with insight, the information has led to an internal rebellion at the IT company Mullvad, where Berntsson is the owner and CEO.

Around a quarter of the employees gathered in an internal chat over the weekend, where they aired criticism of both the donation and the company’s handling of the disclosure.

“I was shocked and sad, and at first surprised,” writes an employee to Flamman.

Another person says that it is both a “deep disappointment” and an “insult” to the company’s employees with a foreign background.

Berntsson himself commented on the news to employees during a meeting on Monday, where employees were allowed to ask questions. Sources to Flamman described the atmosphere before the meeting as tense.

To Flamman, Berntsson justified the donation with “resistance to corruption and dysfunction, creativity and the will to actually solve problems.” Regarding the party’s demand for “comprehensive remigration,” he said that it is needed in view of “today’s miserable situation.”

Several sources tell Flamman that Berntsson has emphasized at recent staff meetings that there are dividing lines among employees in their views on immigration.

“It was like a puzzle piece fell into place,” says an employee, after the revelation about the donation.

Another source says that he has not seen anyone among the staff express support for the donation. At the same time, the chat group for critical discussion still only brings together a minority of the staff.

However, another source believes that the critical group is probably larger.

“I suspect that not everyone dares to show what they think and feel,” he writes to Flamman.

The employees are critical of the donation for several reasons, including that many of the employees themselves are immigrants and “take this very personally.”

Several employees also point out that the Örebro Party’s attitude towards surveillance is at odds with Mullvad’s, as they have advocated increasing the number of surveillance cameras and enabling secret wiretapping in the hunt for criminals.

“Many of the staff believe that this disqualifies Daniel as the leader of a company like Mullvad,” the source writes.

The person also says that many have applied to Mullvad for ethical reasons, that the management’s handling of the issue “definitely damaged trust” among the staff, and that several employees “in light of the donation are considering quitting”. One person says that they will “look around for alternatives”.

“My trust in the leadership is at rock bottom”, says a third person.

The source also says that they see no other way forward than for Daniel Berntsson to step down as CEO. However, another employee sees it as unlikely that Berntsson, who owns 50 percent of the company, will step down on his own. At the meeting, he is also said to have rejected the idea.

“My guess is that he will stay just as before. If you look at how the official response is worded, it is about Mullvad standing for freedom of opinion. They are trying to emphasize that it is something he did as a private person, and that it is therefore not so bad.”

However, the person remains critical:

“It’s one thing to have opinions that don’t match mine, but to make such a gigantic donation without realizing that he is bringing down both himself, Mullvad as a company and all employees at the same time. It makes me doubt his ability as CEO and manager.”

Flamman has sought out Daniel Berntsson.