[en] Based on two situations of communication which occurred at ten-year intervals, this paper studies the configuration of intra- and inter-locutor contradiction in a televisual discourse. One of the goals of this work is to analyse how a politician, in his discursive posture, justifies his change of opinion based on political sympathies. Considering that political stakes are negotiated in dialectics of self to other, political accountability becomes the Achilles heel from which the collapse of the act of justification is orchestrated. The engaging function of discourse and the politician's claim to be consistent with his acts reveal the difficulty that there is assuming contradictory speech without appearing inconsistent. Politically, it would be surprising to produce satirical and panegyric speech addressed to an adversary without criticisms. The act of justification suggests that the main strategy of seduction used by political actors is the lie. The talk show Recto-Verso (which builds contradiction between the Cameroonian Opposition's member Issa Tchiroma Bakary and his statements on the one hand, and between him and contradictors on the other hand) is produced in this regard.The rhetoric of Cameroonian Opposition's member Issa Tchiroma Bakary (ITB) was particularly satirical towards president Biya during the presidential campaign of 2004. At that time, he was one of the representatives of the political parties gathered around the National Coalition for the Reconciliation and Reconstruction (NCRR).The analysis starts thus with a study of the audio extract of 2004 which is used as script of the TV program. It starts by discovering the conflicting themes on the basis of which ITB attacked his political adversary (Biya). Ten years later (2014), the politician, who had become over time Minister of Communication and spokesman of the Biya's government, is invited to the TV program Recto-Verso to justify his shift of position – noticeable on the public scene by panegyrics for his old adversary (Biya).To highlight the contradiction between the speech of 2004 and that of 2014, the talk-show Recto-Verso puts in place a particular scenography consisting of having the politician listen to an extract of a 2004 audio clip from a local radio (Magic FM) in which he violently criticized Biya and his government. The facts evoked in this extract are then reactualized by the moderator Paulin Mballa (PAM) and the guest Claude Abé (CAB) – sociologist and observer of the Cameroonian political scene – in a face-to-face discussion aiming to point out the ideological contradiction of Issa Tchiroma Bakary.Starting from this example, this paper studies the configuration of intra- and inter-locutor contradiction in the media discourse. One of the goals of the work is to analyse how a politician, in his discursive posture, justifies his change of opinion by playing on political sympathies. Considering the fact that political stakes are negotiated in dialectics of self to other, political accountability becomes the Achilles heel from which the collapse of the act of justification is orchestrated. The engaging function of discourse and the politician's claim to be consistent with his acts reveal the difficulty that there is in assuming contradictory speech without appearing inconsistent. Politically, it would be surprising to produce satirical and panegyric speech addressed to an adversary without criticisms. The act of justification suggests that the main strategy of seduction used by political actors is the lie. The talk show Recto-Verso (which builds contradiction between the Cameroonian Opposition's member Issa Tchiroma Bakary and his statements on the one hand, and between him and contradictors on the other hand) is produced in this regard.The analysis starts thus with a study of the audio extract of 2004 which is used as the broadcast conductor. It starts by discovering the conflicting themes on the basis of which ITB attacked his political adversary (Biya). It is in line with a tradition of analysis of political discourse which is borrowed from Stéphane Olivési (1994: 11-12), and aims at underscoring the ''themes and problems'' which were discussed in the sound track as ''operational political stakes'' of the 2004 presidential election. This preliminary stage hence enables us to determine the political stance of ITB in that electoral contest. More significant still, it shows how, through discourse, the Opposition's member views the ideology of his adversary (Biya). As one would have expected, he builds an attractive image of himself (and his political family) and degrades consequently that of the adversary: that is part of political game.As envisaged by the script of the talk show, listening attentively to the extract of 2004 seems to be the first great moment of the building of contradiction. The point is for the politician who has become Biya's ally, to listen to criticisms that he addressed to the latter. Signs of contrariety are observable from ITB's gestures during that phase of listening: contraction of the cornea's adjacent muscles, light smile with an open mouth, left index finger carried to the lower lip, etc. These gestural attitudes, categorized as being spontaneous, are prominent because they dissociate from regularities observed. Happening later than expected, they are caused by certain conflicting themes raised in 2004 and express: the surprise of the politician to discover the audio clip, his dissociation from certain positions of 2004, his desire of rectification, etc. Definitely, the spontaneous gestures show that there is a rupture between the discursive position of 2004 and that of 2014. In addition, the gestures of eye contact, mainly carried out by the head (staring at nothing, downwards, on the left, on the right, towards the moderator, etc.), are explained within the framework of the phatic and referential functions. They communicate generally an attitude of control. In fact, the politician tries to control the communication scene by maintaining visual contact with the moderator of the program or by looking at the cameras with a view to reflecting an image of serenity to the viewers. When it is salient, the gesture of eye contact has rather an expressive function: by its use, the politician wants to show to his audience that he remains coherent in his thought. After the gestures, the study considers the exchange between the politician and his contradictors like the second moment of contradiction. Indeed, PAM and CAB proceed the same way in their questioning aiming at highlighting the contradictory positions. Their speeches are articulated as follows: reformulation of the contents of 2004's soundtrack + stating of the polemical question. The activity of reformulation seeks mainly the approval of the politician and poses the basis of a mutual comprehension between him and the questioner. The polemical question, belonging to external polyphony in the Scandinavian theory of Linguistic Polyphony, reveals the contradictory points of view of the positions taken by ITB in 2004 and 2014. The style of the two contradictors differs however because of their pre-discursive statute. The study finishes with an analysis of the strategy of justification of the politician. Within the framework of legitimacy, the contradictory speeches are supported by arguments of circumstance. The politician presents himself as a being of discourse who assumes his statements at the time they were stated. However, he admits that the positioning of 2004 is a caricature. The distance that he takes with his former positions lets us literally think that contradiction in political field is, in a certain manner, a political lie; a concept discussed in the conclusion of the work.

[fr] Partant de deux situations de communication distantes d'une dizaine d'années, le présent article se propose d'étudier la mise en scène de la contradiction intra- et inter-locuteur(s) dans le discours médiatique télévisuel. Il est question de voir comment l'homme politique, dans sa posture énonciative, justifie son changement d'opinion sur la base du jeu des alliances. Dans la mesure où les enjeux politiques se négocient dans une dialectique de soi à l'autre, la responsabilité politique devient le talon d'Achille à partir duquel l'effondrement de l'acte de justification est orchestré. La fonction engageante du dire et la prétention du sujet parlant à être cohérent dans ses actes mettent en exergue la difficulté qu'il a à assumer un discours contradictoire sans paraître discordant. Politiquement, il serait surprenant de produire à la fois une catilinaire et un panégyrique à l'endroit de l'adversaire sans essuyer des critiques. Quand bien même l'homme politique procède à une justification, il laisse suggérer que son modus operandi de séduction est le mensonge politique. Tel est l'état d'esprit du talk-show Recto Verso, matériau essentiel de cette étude, qui construit la contradiction entre l'opposant politique camerounais Issa Tchiroma Bakary et ses dires, lesquels sont ensuite réactualisés par des contradicteurs.