France’s parliamentary elections went better than expected for the Left. While polls predicted victory for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, her defeat in the July 7 runoff votes was a relief for the left-wingers who rallied against her. Their Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance took 193 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, against 166 for President Emmanuel Macron’s allies and 142 for Le Pen’s supporters.

Seven weeks on, the picture is hardly rosy. This is partly because of the basic numbers: the Rassemblement National was still the biggest party by vote totals, and had already in June’s European election surpassed ten million votes. In the French parliamentary election, voters from the center and the Left rallied against the far right and denied it a majority. But this, and even the NFP’s ultimate first-place finish, was more a “dam” against Le Pen’s party than a real show of mass support for the Left.

Moreover, even after Macron’s incumbent prime minister, Gabriel Attal, promised to resign, his government remains in place. The Left had an important moment at the polls. But with many challenges ahead, this looks more like a reprieve than a real victory.