People love to blame French protests on immigration, but France has been doing this since 1789. Protest is a national tradition there: the Revolution, the Paris Commune, May ’68, the Gilets Jaunes. The biggest recent waves, like the 2023 pension strikes, were about retirement age, wages, and the cost of living, and the people marching were mostly native-born workers, students, and unions. In France, taking to the streets is a normal way to talk back to the government, backed by strong unions and a long habit of making leaders listen. That is culture, not demographics. A country that beheaded its own king did not need anyone to teach it how to protest.