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The Alvak Spring (Teutonic: Alvakischer Frühling), also known in Thalassian and Aravan circles as the Spring of 1980 (Thalassian: Άνοιξη του 1980) (Aravan: ربيع 1980), was a nationwide pro-democracy movement in Alva that generated mass protests from October 2, 1977 to June 29, 1987. The demonstrations forced the ruling government to hold elections and institute other democratic reforms which led to the establishment of the present-day government of Alva.

On October 2, 1977, the military regime of President Niklas Dimellis-Funke announced its choice of Paulus von Anderle, Home Minister at the time of the announcement as well as a close confidant of Dimellis-Funke, as the next president. The public designation of Dimellis-Funke's successor was seen as a final affront to a delayed and deferred process to revise the Alvak constitution to permit the direct election of the President and Chancellor. Although pressure on the regime, in the form of demonstrations by students and other groups, had been building for some time, the announcement finally triggered massive and effective protests.

Unwilling to resort to violence due to the international audience the widespread protests had managed to acquire, and (correctly) believing that von Anderle could win competitive elections anyway given divisions within the opposition, Dimellis-Funke and von Anderle acceded to the key demands of direct presidential elections and restoration of civil liberties. Although von Anderle was duly elected as president alongside Joachim Hämmerli as Chancellor that December with a comfortable majority, the democratic consolidation of Alva was fully underway.

Indirect elections
Following the May Putsch of 1958, the reigning clique amongst the military-controlled Imperial Assistance Government (the sole party within the Reichstag) were the moderates, initially led by Maximillian Höss. However, Höss' reluctance to take center stage in Alvak affairs led to the role of President being passed on to Cristoforos Nicolatsis, a close collaborator of Höss. The death of Höss in 1963 after a long fight with lung cancer allowed Nicolatsis to expand on his plans to slowly introduce and implement more liberal reforms that would have otherwise been shot down by a conservative Höss.

Despite increased civil rights alongside the implementation of the framework for a return to democracy in the 1967 revision of the Constitution, the main executive roles were still elected by a hand-picked committee, usually staffed by fellow moderates. Because of the lack of direct representation in this process, it did not represent any sort of democratic check on presidential power. This committee-directed succession continued operating through the 70s, with its purpose being fulfilled only once after Nicolatsis himself died in 1975 in the Charlottenburg air crash, electing Niklas Dimellis-Funke.

Seeking to gain domestic and international standing by providing the illusion of democracy in Alva, Dimellis-Funke held elections in 1977. While Dimellis-Funke remained as President, the elections were overall a major moral victory for the opposition, led by Tobi Viermetz and Alexandros Marakos. The opposition's key demand was direct presidential elections, and Dimellis-Funke sought to foil this by initiating a campaign of delay, deliberation, and deferment. A parliamentary committee debated various proposals for months; on April 13, 1979, Dimellis-Funke suspended the committee after the assassination of Karl Ritter von Morgenroth, the Alvak Foreign Minister. This action intensified unrest, but the resulting demonstrations did not impress the regime and Dimellis-Funke decided to continue his program to install Paulus von Anderle as his successor.

Throughout this period, the labour movement, university students, and religious organizations, in particular, joined in a mutually supporting alliance to put increasing pressure on the regime. This mobilized portion of civil society, in addition to the political opposition, formed the core of the resistance that would become generalized during the decisive events of 1980.

The Red Wave in Alva
With the international coverage of the Veikan Civil War bringing about an international wave of renewed leftist vigour, Teutonic spies used the opportunity to incite unrest among the nation's youth and either directly or indirectly incited many acts of terrorism against the military dictatorship. The effort and its immediate effects were regarded as moderately unsuccessful, with the government's position only slightly swayed and the amount of damage being relatively minor. Despite this, many civilians and some government officials were killed, with the highest-profile assassination being the one of Karl Ritter von Morgenroth, Alvak Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a diplomatic visit to Mero-Curgovina in April 1979.

The failure of many attempted terrorist acts carried out by far-left groups paradoxically led to a massive internal political shift towards liberalization. For extreme leftists, compromise with the social democrats and liberals was seen as the only remaining way to reinstate a free democracy. For a majority of the conservatives in the Imperial Assistance Government, cooperation with the growing number of liberals was viewed as necessary to rein in and consolidate power without entirely giving in to socialist demands. The nationalists, growing increasingly unpopular and less in number, were effectively forced out of their positions.

Torture and murder of Amalia Demetrioglou
In the years leading up to the end of the regime, many student activists in universities struggled against Dimellis-Funke's dictatorship in the aftermath of Ritter von Morgenroth's assassination in 1979. Amalia Demetrioglou, the president of the student council in the linguistics department of Alvastadt Polytechnic University, was one of those students. Detained during an investigation into such activities, Demetrioglou refused to confess the whereabouts of one of her fellow activists. During the interrogation, authorities used waterboarding techniques to torture her, eventually leading to her death on 14 January 1980.

Information surrounding the events of Amalia Demetrioglou's death was initially suppressed. However, her father, a member of the Abwehr, revealed the truth to the public on February 18, further inflaming public sentiment. Amalia's fellow activists as well as many pro-democracy groups planned a June 10 demonstration in her honour.

Death of Rolf Bauschinger
As demonstrations escalated after the June 10th announcement of Paulus von Anderle as Dimellis-Funke's successor, students at the Sondheim University of Alvastadt joined alongside practically all post-secondary schools and took to the streets to protest. With the sudden surge in demonstrators, Alvastadt police allowed the use of tear gas grenades in order to repel the protesters. During these protests, Sondheim student Rolf Bauschinger was heavily injured when a tear gas grenade struck him in the head, penetrating the skull. While he survived the impact, his condition deteriorated quickly, dying from his wounds on June 29, having witnessed Dimellis-Funke's speech from his hospital bed the day prior. In critical condition, he quickly became a symbol of the subsequent protests over the weeks that followed. A crowd of 1.4 million people attended his and Amalia Demetrioglou's joint funerals on the 3rd of June; both Bauschinger's body and Demetrioglou's recovered body were buried in the Alvastadt National Cemetery.

Main demonstrations
The 1967 constitution limited the president to a single five-year term. Unlike his predecessors, Dimellis-Funke made no effort to amend the document in order to allow him to run again in 1980. However, while his rule was somewhat milder than that of Nicolatsis, he resisted calls to further open up the regime.

On June 10, Paulus von Anderle was nominated as a candidate for the presidency at an Imperial Assistance Government convention at the Crown Prince's Court. Widely recognized as the spark that ignited the largest of protests, major demonstrations occurred throughout the country, with an estimated 420,000 people participating in 10 cities including Alvastadt. Many people of all social standings joined and supported participants.

On June 18, a rally centred around the banning of tear gas grenades after the serious injuries and deaths brought about by tear gas grenades brought 1.5 million people into the streets across at least 14 cities across the country. Finally, the white-collar workers who had before remained on the sidelines joined protests, throwing rolls of toilet paper, applauding and otherwise voicing their support. On June 19, Dimellis-Funke issued orders to mobilize the army, but fearing a hostile response from international spectators and not wanting a repeat of the 1957 Kalylene uprising, he rescinded them within hours. On June 26, the National March for Peace was held by the National Movement for Democracy, the largest pro-democratic organization in Alva; over 1 million people in 10 cities participated and 5,128 people were detained.

The last nail in the coffin was the defection of entire sections of the Reichswehr to the pro-democracy activists. The most notable defection was captured on live television on June 28, 1980, as several platoons of the 4th Panzergrenadier Division drove alongside marching protesters down the left bank of the Alva River, with soldiers and officers alike shouting pro-democracy slogans.

Eventually, Dimellis-Funke issued the Declaration for Order, capitulating to the demands of the protesters by promising to amend the Constitution, dissolve the Imperial Assistance Government, and release prisoners recently arrested under the premises of the National Security Act.