Complex sentence: Many were surprised to find Banac, who had a reputation of a maverick and independent intellectual, become the leader of the LS, and were even more surprised to see him take the post of Minister of Environmental Protection in 2003.
Split into simpler sentences: Many were surprised to find Banac, who had a reputation of a maverick and independent intellectual, become the leader of the LS. It was even more surprising to see him take the post of Minister of Environmental Protection in 2003.