of the Executive Branch (once by Bartolomé Mitre and twice by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento). In the last 15 years of the 19th century, the city more than doubled its population, in part due to immigration. In 1911 the French-owned railway company Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano opened a line between Rosario and Puerto Belgrano, Argentina's main naval base. By 1926, Rosario had 407,000 inhabitants, 47% of them foreign, many coming from Europe in the wake of World War I.
Contemporary History
In 1946 Rosario massively supported Juan Perón's rise to power. The city received the benefits of the nationalization and subsidizing of many industries. Perón was deposed in 1955. In 1969 workers and students took the streets to protest against the dictatorship (Rosariazo). During the dictatorship started in 1976, hundreds of citizens were "disappeared" by the government.
In 1983 Argentina returned to democratic rule but hyperinflation caused the economic collapse of the country in 1989. In Rosario there were riotswith episodes of looting. Under the Menem administration the situation became worse as the industrial sector of the city was dismantled by foreign competition and agricultural exports stagnated. In 1995 unemployment in the area reached 21.1%, and a large part of Rosario's population fell below the poverty line.
Since the recovery of the national economy that followed the 2001 collapse, Rosario's economic situation has improved. The boom in agricultural exports has caused a large increase in consumer spending and investment. The Socialist Party has won mayoral races in the city in every election since 1989, when Councilman Héctor Cavallero was elected. His successor, Hermes Binner (elected in 1995), was elected Governor of Santa Fe in 2007 and became the runner-up in the 2011 presidential election on the FAP ticket. MayorMiguel Lifschitz's administration, elected in 2007, took advantage of the economic boom to invest heavily in
