conflictualiser

Conflictualiser is a recent, fairly academic and journalistic coinage meaning to frame a debate or situation as a conflict — turning a neutral disagreement into an openly adversarial one (conflictualiser un débat). It belongs to political and social-science commentary, not everyday speech.

• Certains médias ont tendance à conflictualiser chaque débat. — Some media outlets tend to frame every debate as a conflict.
• Le candidat a choisi de conflictualiser la campagne. — The candidate chose to make the campaign openly adversarial.
• Ce sujet n'a pas besoin d'être conflictualisé. — This topic doesn't need to be turned into a conflict.

This is a niche, jargon-heavy verb from political and media commentary — a learner reaching for it in ordinary conversation about a disagreement would sound like they're quoting a newspaper editorial rather than speaking naturally.