French President Emmanuel Macron may have snatched victory away from the far-right by calling a snap election, but he has a political challenge ahead—facing the prospect of a coalition government with the left which saw a resurgence as a political bloc.

That’s according to Memorial University political scientist Lucian Ashworth who says the results of the French election came as a shock, not the least of which to Macron himself.

Ashworth says Macron took two political gambles, one, counting on support for his centrist party to defeat the far-right, and the other, hoping that the left was not organized enough to form a coalition.

“But, the left pulled off a coup” says Ashworth, “because these parties have major differences between them. But they were able to pull together a coalition very quickly, and as a result in that sense, Macron’s bet didn’t come off, because the left was far more organized than he realized.”

The surprise results came just days after a decisive Labour victory in the UK.