It’s more like it’s the only usage of it. Some usages of semicolons in English, such as to separate items in an enumeration that have commas themselves, isn’t common in French. Take this example from the Wikipedia page:

The people present were Jamie, a man from New Zealand; John, the milkman’s son; and George, a gaunt kind of man with no friends.

In French this enumeration would more commonly use parentheses instead of commas, and commas instead of semicolons; or just commas all around if the context is clear enough:

Les personnes présentes étaient Jamie (un homme de Nouvelle-Zélande), John (le fils du laitier), et George, un maigrelet qui n’avait pas d’ami.