  Fitzpatrick's variational representation of maximal monotone operators is
here extended to a class of pseudo-monotone operators in Banach spaces. On this
basis, the initial-value problem associated with the first-order flow of such
an operator is here reformulated as a minimization principle, extending a
method that was pioneered by Brezis, Ekeland and Nayroles for gradient flows.
This formulation is used to prove that the problem is stable w.r.t.\ arbitrary
perturbations not only of data but also of operators. This is achieved by using
the notion of evolutionary $\Gamma$-convergence w.r.t.\ a nonlinear topology of
weak type.
  These results are applied to the Cauchy problem for quasilinear parabolic
PDEs. This provides the structural compactness and stability of the model of
several physical phenomena: nonlinear diffusion, incompressible viscous flow,
phase transitions, and so on.
