Latvian TV's pre-election game "X Hour in Silgale" wraps up, testing politicians' crisis decisions
Latvian Television's "Aizliegtais paņēmiens" show ran a pre-election game in which Saeima candidate MPs made decisions in a simulated crisis. The "X Hour in Silgale" game concluded after three episodes featuring three political parties.
Ahead of this year's Saeima elections, Latvian Television's programme "Aizliegtais paņēmiens" has run a special format called the pre-election game "X Hour in Silgale." The aim was to see how candidates for Saeima seats would cooperate and make decisions if a crisis situation arose in the country.
How the game worked
The programme's creators built a simulated crisis scenario, examined across three separate episodes. In each episode, decisions were made by representatives of one political party — three parties or alliances took part in total. Each political force was represented by five Saeima candidate MPs, who had to discuss, negotiate and find a solution within the simulated situation.
The format allowed viewers to see how specific politicians would act if forced to respond quickly to a crisis — whether they can work as a team, how fast they reach decisions, and how they argue their positions under pressure.
Context
The show aired during the pre-election period, when voters are weighing the offerings of different parties and the abilities of candidates. The game format used by "Aizliegtais paņēmiens" presents politicians outside the usual debate setting — rather than talking about promises, it shows them actually acting under conditions resembling a real crisis.
With its third episode, the "X Hour in Silgale" game has now concluded, wrapping up this pre-election content series from LTV.
