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.

[1][2][3] 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).

[7][8] For the 2019 Italian local elections, after De Luca initially announced his re-election bid,[9][10][11] he ultimately decided not to run for a second term, and he was succeeded by fellow centre-right coalition member Mario Guarente,[12][13] who took office on 20 June 2019.

[14] 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,[15] and took office on 20 June 2019.

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