The Iranian opposition politician Reza Pahlavi, who is the son of the Shah who was overthrown in 1979, was on Thursday attacked with a red liquid after having held a press conference in Berlin, where he had come in order to urge Germany and Europe to adopt a harder line towards the Iranian regime.

Recordings of the incident spread to social media:

Reza Pahlavi just got attacked in Berlin.

Woke Islamofascists are destroying Europe. pic.twitter.com/nLDgDBE5F5

— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) April 23, 2026

The perpetrator was apprehended by the police, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to Pahlavi’s team, he was sprayed with tomato sauce. The police stated that the apprehended man has not previously been known to the police. An investigation has been initiated against him for bodily violation, damage to property, and insult of persons in political life. “Our response units have been alerted, and the security measures for the guest have been adjusted,” the police explain.

The police arrest a man who shortly beforehand had attacked Reza Pahlavi in Berlin on 23 April 2026. Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP / NTB.

Pahlavi had been received with enthusiasm by the exile community, but opponents were also present.

Around 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the Reichstag building in Berlin at midday to demand a change of power. Many waved flags with the symbol of the monarchy that was overthrown by Islamists in 1979, the lion and the sun.

During the afternoon, several thousand demonstrators were expected, according to a police spokesman. A total of 800 police officers were on duty owing to the many demonstrations. Pahlavi’s opponents also had plans to take to the streets.

The message from the former Iranian Crown Prince was crystal clear:

Any form of policy of concession towards the oppressive state apparatus is pointless, the 65-year-old said to the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur during his visit to Berlin. “It has not led to anything in all these years.”

Pahlavi has lived in exile in the USA for several decades and has distinguished himself as a leader for a political transition after a coup in the Islamic Republic.

Pahlavi said at a press conference that the people in Iran wished that the “monsters” in the country’s leadership, who have blood on their hands, should not remain in power. There are no pragmatists or reformers in the “regime”. To DPA he said: “I expect that Western governments, including the German government, end the approach they have had for more than four decades. It was an attempt at appeasement, in the expectation that the regime would change behaviour.” But it has had no effect.

Members of Germany’s government have not planned meetings with Pahlavi, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.

Pahlavi was to meet the Union’s foreign policy spokesman Armin Laschet and foreign policy spokespeople from other factions in the Bundestag in the afternoon.

A German parliamentarian and politician with Turkish roots is not enthusiastic:

This was criticised by Cansu Özdemir, foreign policy spokeswoman for Die Linke in the Bundestag. “The Shah’s son is not a credible democrat – the relevant members of the Bundestag should be aware of that.” He stands for restorative conceptions of power instead of genuine democratic renewal.

Laschet responded to the criticism on ARD: “He is the only face from the opposition that people know. And for many Iranians he is simply the first alternative to the mullah regime.”