The emergence of protest movements, such as the Indignados and Occupy Wall Street, is one of the most remarkable political occurrences in recent years. This paper argues that these phenomena allow us to underline the broad role of emotions in politics. Drawing on both political theory and discourse analysis (mainly visual and rhetoric investigation), this paper aims to stress the essential political role played by anger in contemporary democracy. Focusing on the Indignados movement in Spain, this paper advances some suggestions for a theoretical and cross-disciplinary inquiry. Anger in particular boosts the redefinition of the modern political subject – “The People” – consequently raising the question of the “real place” of politics, in the struggle for political sovereignty between financial imperatives and the democratic ideal. Finally, the paper argues that anger plays a crucial role in political legitimacy, which liberal democratic theories have to take into account
