List of mayors of Potenza

The mayor of Potenza is an elected politician who, along with the Potenza City Council, is accountable for the strategic government of Potenza in Basilicata, Italy, capital city of the region. During the First Italian Republic period, the city was a stronghold of Christian Democracy, and Emilio Colombo, who held the mayoralty office in 1952, was prime minister of Italy from 1970 to 1972. During the Second Italian Republic, it was a stronghold of the centre-left coalition and its centrist and Christian-democratic parties.

In 2014, Dario De Luca of Brothers of Italy, a heir of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement and the post-fascist National Alliance, became the first right-wing mayor of Potenza in the history of the Italian Republic. In 2019, after initially announcing his re-election bid, De Luca did not run for re-election. Instead, he was replaced by Mario Guarente of the traditional Northern Italian party Lega, which was born in the 1980s as a regionalist, Padanian nationalist, and separatist party but that since 2017 and under Matteo Salvini's leadership had become more of a right-wing populist and nationalist party, and obtained successes in Southern Italy, including Potenza's mayoralty. In 2024, the centre-right coalition did not re-nominate Guarente as candidate due to his unpopularity.

Overview
According to the Constitution of Italy, the mayor of Potenza is member of the City Council. The mayor is elected by the population of Potenza, who also elect the members of the City Council, controlling the mayor's policy guidelines and is able to enforce his resignation by a motion of no confidence. The mayor is entitled to appoint and release the members of his government. Since 1995, the mayor is elected directly by Potenza's electorate; in all mayoral elections in Italy in cities with a population higher than 15,000, the voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote, and the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected, while the number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally. If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks.

From 1946 to 1995, the mayor of Potenza, which was elected by the City Council, was always a member of Christian Democracy, the ruling party of post-war Italy; as of 2024, of those who held the office of mayor of Potenza, Emilio Colombo (1952) is the only one to be a former prime minister of Italy (1970–1972). In the 1995 Italian local elections, Domenico Potenza of the Democratic Party of the Left became the first mayor of Potenza through direct elections. Up until the 2014 Italian local elections, the office was always held by a member of the centre-left coalition. Overturning the result of the first round, Dario De Luca of Brothers of Italy was elected mayor of Potenza on 8 June 2014 and took office on 23 June 2014. In an upset, he was the first representative of Brothers of Italy to be elected mayor in a provincial capital, the first right-wing mayor of Potenza, and the first centre-right coalition's win. For the 2019 Italian local elections, after De Luca initially announced his re-election bid,  he ultimately decided not to run for a second term, and he was succeeded by fellow centre-right coalition member Mario Guarente,  who took office on 20 June 2019. A member of Lega, which since Matteo Salvini's leadership had undergone ideological changes that allowed it to gain a significant number of votes in Southern Italy, Guarente was elected in the runoff on 9 June 2019, defeating his left-wing opponent Valerio Tramutoli of Possible by 200 votes, and took office on 20 June 2019. For the 2024 Italian local elections, Guarente did not seek re-election,  having been one of the least popular mayors.

City Council election (1946–1995)
From 1946 to 1995, the mayor of Potenza was elected by the City Council.

Direct election (since 1995)
Since 1995, under provisions of new local administration law, the mayor of Potenza is chosen by direct election.