The Eurozone. Political independents. Pollsters. Now another group has reason for cheer after the first round of France’s election on Sunday: Europe’s super rich.
Emmanuel Macron’s emergence as firm favorite to win the French presidency on May 7 catapulted European stocks to a 17-month high, Bloomberg reports. And with that, the coffers of European billionaires swelled by $27.5 billion—or 2.6%. So much so, in fact, that Zara founder Amancio Ortega, who was bumped down to third place by Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos last month, reclaimed his spot as the world’s second-richest person.
Although Macron is the front runner going in to final polls next week, Sunday’s vote threatened to return Europe’s second largest economy a choice between far right National Front leader Marine Le Pen and leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both of whom are hostile to the euro and free trade.
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It would have been, Citigroup analysts said, “a nightmare scenario for investors,” according to CNN Money.