Davis tells FNM to get used to losing

Prime Minister Philip Davis delivered a sharp rebuke to the Opposition during his budget debate contribution, arguing that it has failed to accept a series of electoral defeats and remains consumed by the bitterness that characterized its recent political campaigns.

Addressing the House of Assembly, Davis said the Opposition had not learned the lessons of the May 12 general election, citing what he described as personal attacks and conduct displayed during the budget debate.

“Given some of the personal attacks and behaviour witnessed in this Parliament during this debate, it seems that the side opposite has not yet learned the lesson of 12th May,” Davis said.

“The campaign is finished. And in the past, it has been a hallmark of our democracy that all sides accept the outcome with grace and move forward.”

The Prime Minister accused Opposition members of continuing to engage in divisive politics despite repeated losses at the polls.

“Yet they persist in the bitterness and hate which defined their campaign,” he said. “They claim to be obsessed with holding our feet to the fire. Instead, they risk getting their fingers burnt.”

Davis said he understood the disappointment that comes with electoral defeat but suggested the Opposition should now be accustomed to it.

“Losing is painful, even though you'd think that by now they'd have gotten used to it,” he said.

The Prime Minister pointed to what he described as a pattern of defeats suffered by the FNM since 2021, including the 2021 general election, the 2023 West Grand Bahama and Bimini by-election, the 2025 Golden Isles by-election, and the 2026 general election.

“Since 2021, every two or three years they've lost,” Davis said. “This is the reality.”

Drawing on the concept of the five stages of grief, Davis suggested the Opposition was still struggling to come to terms with its political fortunes.

“When facing loss, psychologists talk about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance,” he said. “That acceptance appears to have been absent from many of the contributions made by the side opposite.”

While acknowledging that political theatrics would likely continue in the years ahead, Davis urged parliamentarians not to allow political spectacle to overshadow issues of national importance.

The Prime Minister also criticized the Opposition for focusing heavily on a legal matter currently before the courts in the United States involving an individual arrested following an Election Day plane crash, arguing that the attention devoted to the issue distracted from debate on the national budget.

“Their decision to focus so much time, attention, effort and gimmickry on the legal matter before the courts in the United States, in respect of the person arrested after a plane crash, meant that the national budget did not get the full attention it deserves,” he said.

Davis reiterated the government's commitment to a full and independent investigation into the allegations connected to the case, a position he said had been clearly stated last month and would not change.

“Without the facts, it achieves nothing to continue to speculate via press statements, political point-scoring, or social media commentary,” he said. “Allegations of this gravity are far too serious to be cheapened into a cycle of accusation, speculation and spectacle.”

The Prime Minister stressed that investigators must be allowed to carry out their work without political interference.

“The Royal Bahamas Police Force and its Commissioner do not need publicity stunts to do their work. And they certainly do not need prompting from politicians,” Davis said.

“Their investigations must be allowed to proceed without interference, without prejudice, and without any attempt to bend the outcome under the glare of politically motivated publicity.”