Governor
Néstor Kirchner, who had been a protégé of Peralta's parents, appointed him Secretary of Labour in 1999, and in 2003, he was elected to the Provincial Legislature on the
Justicialist Party ticket. Kirchner, who became
President of Argentina, appointed Peralta director of the state coal concern,
Yacimientos Carboníferos Fiscales (YCF), in 2004. Taking a
leave of absence from the party's regional congress, Peralta accepted the post following a mine accident which killed 14. In the general elections in October 2007, Peralta was officially elected Governor, beating
UCR candidate Eduardo Costa by almost 20 points on the Kirchnerist
Front for Victory slate; he was sworn into office in December 2007. Peralta took office as Governor of Santa Cruz at a troubled time for the Province, amid strikes, sporadic riots, and allegations of police brutality; amid high levels of federal spending on local infrastructure projects the situation in the province later stabilized. Inheriting a growing
pension system deficit, the governor ordered withholding rates increased and benefited trimmed for early retirees. Governor Peralta continued to enjoy the support of President
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the successor and widow of Néstor Kirchner. She defended the governor against calls from the opposition for impeachment following his refusal to reinstate Eduardo Sosa, a
prosecutor who had been dismissed by then-Governor Kirchner in 1995, and who won a federal court ruling to that effect. Peralta presided over a federally and provincially funded
public works boom in Santa Cruz. Much as his predecessors did, however, Peralta faced restive labor unions in the province, and contended with a series of
general strikes in the educational and petroleum sectors during 2011; strikes in the latter industry reportedly cost the province US$50 million in lost revenues, as well as over US$200 million in federal revenue. Elections in 2011 returned both Governor Peralta and President Fernández de Kirchner to their respective offices. Their alliance was strained in 2012, however, by allegations the governor had the president spied upon during at least one of her frequent visits to her
El Calafate family residence. Peralta concluded that the president was behind the Provincial Legislature's opposition to his budget proposal (which included a US$200 million deficit), and by September had broken with President Fernández de Kirchner outright. ==References==