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Greek ultra-right party loses 3rd position in parliament

Xinhua, March 5, 2017 Adjust font size:

Greek far-right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avghi) party has no longer been the third largest party in the parliament after it lost one deputy who turned independent, Greek national news agency AMNA reported Sunday.

The congressman, Dimitris Koukoutsis, sent a formal letter to the parliament speaker on Saturday, announcing his decision to leaves Golden Dawn, which would then had 17 seats in the 300-member assembly.

Koukoutsis' departure was "due to disappointment with new members in the party," according to the letter.

His decision made the Democratic Alliance become the third largest parliamentary group with 18 seats, only behind the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA (144 seats) and the conservative New Democracy (76 seats).

Golden Dawn entered the Greek parliament for the first time in the 2012 elections with 7 percent of votes, due to the voters' anger at the harsh austerity measures imposed on the nation since 2010 to address the severe debt crisis.

Since 2012, the party had retained the third position in the assembly elections. Endi