GETTY Marine Le Pen has tapped into the disenchantment in Calais

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It may be notoriously known for its sprawling Jungle migrant camp, but the town on the edge of the English Channel was also once known as the lacemaker capital of France. Calais used to boast three factories, employing 30,000 people whose livelihood depended on the design and creation of lace. However, only 300 textile workers stand after a Chinese investor took over Desseilles, one of the three factories, which has forced citizens to tap into Marine Le Pen’s promise to make “forgotten” France great again.

Countdown to the French election! Sat, May 6, 2017 Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen continue to campaign as they head towards the election run-off on May 7th Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 10 Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) party candidate for 2017 presidential election, is protected by bodyguards as eggs are thrown by demonstrators during her arrival in Dol-de-Bretagne

GETTY Marine Le Pen is going head to head with Emmanuel Macron on Sunday

Just days before the final round of the 2017 French elections, unemployment tops 20 per cent in Calais and the remaining factory floors rely on machinery rather than manpower. Jean-Philippe Lenclos, 50, has worked the lace machines at Desseilles for 30 years. He told the New York Times: "We’ve seen our colleagues leave one after another. “I’m the last one: My three children are teenagers, but none of them want to do what their father is doing.” The Front National leader's anti-European Union rhetoric has also made Calais a big fan base after the Brussels bloc abolished textile import quotas in 2005, allowing for cheap garments and knockoff lace from Asia to flood the European market.

GETTY Calais was once the lace capital of France

She recently told supporters at a rally “the main thing at stake in this election is the rampant globalisation that is endangering our civilisation", as she promised to "bring order back to France". Famke Krumbmüller, the head of research at OpenCitiz, told New York Times: "Marine Le Pen says this election is about the patriots versus the globalists. “She’s right. The new cleavage opposes those who feel they have lost from globalisation and want economic and national protectionism, versus those who think the answers to France’s problems also lie in European and international openness and cooperation.” Ms Le Pen's party has also spoken out against Chinese competition and French labor codes, which have left Desseilles in tatters.

GETTY Calais is known for the notorious Jungle camp