People suddenly change sides or change their minds in sudden and unexpected ways.
In English there is no real word for this phenomenon. Since the onset of NATO air strikes against Kosovo, the Czech Republic has been undergoing its own peculiar drole de guerre. All the pundits were agreed that joining NATO was the thing to do. Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Jiri Dienstbier argued that joining NATO was the best option. There was little public debate on NATO membership, and no referendum either, it's true.