Yes, France has strong worker protection laws, but if someone is found to have been abusively fired there’s a cap on how much they can sue for. The amount is based on how long they’ve been with the company. For example, after 2 years, the amount is 3 months salary, after 5 years, 6 months salary. The complete table is here: https://droit-finances.commentcamarche.com/faq/54743-bareme-...
Layoffs in France correspond with the idea of a "licenciement économique" and the details of how that is managed are presented here: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/N481 .
Simply put, it's a negotiated process between the company, union representatives, and the government / legal representatives.
In France, layoffs are difficult to do if a company is making money, but can be done to keep a company from losing money or shutting down or moving somewhere else (i.e. another country).
I am absolutely against the US way of just firing people, but I accept the realism of small businesses and startups where you -as en employee- simply can't take for granted that your job (or company) will exist in 5 or even 2-3 years.
IIRC in Germany we have exceptions for <10 employees, for example.