evidence: This summer, France has rolled out its pass-sanitaire (health-pass) system, which requires that people show proof of vaccination, a negative COVID test, or proof of a past COVID infection in order to attend public events, visit museums and cinemas, and—as of this week—enter restaurants, cafés, long-distance trains, and airplanes. The system is one of the strictest national vaccine policies in Europe, and has become a cultural and political flash point in France: over the last month, thousands of critics of President Emmanuel Macron have protested in the streets, decrying the passes as divisive and illiberal. [...] I recently talked about Macron’s pandemic policies—and the broad populist resistance to his governance—with Cécile Alduy, a professor of French literature and culture at Stanford University and an expert in French politics. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed France’s "nudge" approach to vaccination policy, how the current wave of protests in France differs from the American anti-vaccine movement, and what the fight over health passes suggests about the future of French politics. [...] The specific thing about France is that the opposition to the health passes and the nudge approach to vaccination is coalescing the existing opposition to Macron, and follows social tensions that were embodied in the Yellow Vest movement, which existed before COVID. In terms of sociological makeup and ideological affinities, there’s a pretty strong overlap between the Yellow Vest movement and the current anti-vaccination movement.