Enragé activist who championed section assemblies and direct democracy
A former postal employee and Paris section activist, Varlet joined the Enragés in pressing subsistence demands and direct democracy. He participated in the insurrection of 31 May–2 June 1793 that removed the Girondins. He later criticized the revolutionary government for suppressing popular sovereignty and was repeatedly arrested.
Political position and stakes in the Revolution
Varlet held that Paris section assemblies, petitions, and insurrectionary politics were not simply noise outside the Convention. He argued that representative bodies could not monopolise popular sovereignty and that citizens should intervene directly in subsistence and political decisions. The removal of the Girondins at the end of May and beginning of June 1793 shows Parisian pressure materially reshaping parliamentary power.
Direct section action did not automatically mean democracy for everyone. Influence was uneven according to who could attend, and to the power of armed National Guards and administrative bodies. Varlet’s repeated arrests after he criticised revolutionary government show how the Convention and Committees, having gained power with the help of popular mobilisation, restricted its independent pressure.