[4] In 1987 he joined the pro-market Liberty Movement of Nobel laureate writer Mario Vargas Llosa which became part of the 1988 established broad liberal-conservative Democratic Front (FREDEMO).

After Fujimori's self-coup during the constitutional crisis in 1992 and the decline of FREDEMO, Rey left the Liberty Movement and formed his own party, the National Renewal in August 1992, which he has chaired ever since.

He was re-elected Congressman for the National Renewal in 1995 and in 2000 as part of the Avancemos alliance led by Federico Salas who was afterwards appointed Prime Minister by President Fujimori.

In the 2001 early elections caused by the corruption crisis leading to Fujimori's resignation, Rey contested as part of the Christian Democrats-led National Unity alliance of presidential candidate Lourdes Flores and was re-elected to the Congress.

[4] As President Alan García of the social democratic Peruvian Aprista Party did not have a stable majority in Congress, he and his changing Prime Ministers tried to win multi-partisan support.

In the 2011 general election Rafael Rey changed sides and allied with Fujimori's daughter Keiko.