Centrism is a range of political ideology associated with moderate politics placed between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. Various centrist movements have developed in different countries and regions, based on the specific country and region's political environment.

Australia There have been centrists on both sides of politics who serve alongside the various factions within the Liberal and Labor parties. Centrism is represented by the moderates in the Liberal Party and Labor Right in the Labor Party. The Australian Democrats are the most prominent centrist party in Australian history. The party had representation in the Senate from 1977 to 2007, frequently holding the balance of power. Formed by Don Chipp on a promise to "Keep the Bastards Honest", it was known to have represented the "middle ground". The party regained registration in 2019. In addition, many smaller groups have formed in response to the bipartisan system that upholds centrist ideals. South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon launched his centrist political party called the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) in 2014, which was renamed the Centre Alliance in 2018.

Bangladesh Traditionally, in Bangladeshi politics, the term "centre" (as well as centre-left) is labelled with Bengali nationalism and secularism, in contrast to the right wing, which is labelled with Bangladeshi nationalism and Islamism. The Awami League is the oldest existing centrist political party in Bangladesh. It was originally founded as a centre-left party but moved towards centrism in the late 1970s. However, in recent years, the party has been cited as far-right due to its authoritarian tendency & human rights abuse. Other centrist political parties in Bangladesh include the National Citizen Party, Nationalist Democratic Movement, Liberal Democratic Party, and Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh. Bangladesh Nationalist Party, one of the dominant parties of Bangladesh, also shows centrist tendency.

Belgium The traditional centrist party of Flanders was the People's Union, which embraced social liberalism and aimed to represent Dutch-speaking Belgians who felt culturally suppressed by Francophones. The New Flemish Alliance is the largest and, since 2009, the only extant successor of that party. It is, however, primarily composed of the right wing of the former People's Union and has adopted a more liberal-conservative ideology in recent years. Among French-speaking Belgians, the Humanist Democratic Centre is a centre party as it is considerably less conservative than its Flemish counterpart, Christian Democratic and Flemish. Other parties in the centre of the political spectrum are the liberal Reformist Movement and the French-speaking minority party DéFI.

Brazil There are several centrist parties in Brazil, such as the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), a catch-all party and one of the largest political parties in Brazil. The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) is another example of a centrist party in Brazilian politics. Other centrist parties include the Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 2011) (PSD), the Green Party (Brazil) (PV), Citizenship (Brazil) (CID), and the Republican Party of the Social Order (PROS). Due to the high number of centre parties in Brazil, they exert a major position in local politics, and due to that, parties that are not part of major parties of the right-wing or the left-wing are pejoratively called Centrão (meaning 'big centre').

Canada

Throughout modern history, Canadian governments at the federal level have governed from a moderate, centrist political position, practicing "brokerage politics". Both the Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada (or its predecessors) rely on attracting support from a broad spectrum of voters. As the historically dominant party, Liberals position themselves at the centre to centre-left of the Canadian political spectrum, being substantially more moderate and centrist than the right-wing Conservatives. In the late 1970s, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau claimed that his Liberal Party of Canada adhered to the "radical centre". Far-left and far-right politics have never been prominent forces in Canadian society. In 2024, 65% of Canadians described themselves as "centrist".

Croatia The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats and the People's Party – Reformists may be considered centrist parties. The agrarian Croatian Peasant Party became moderate and centrist during its last years, having been centre-right in the past.

Czech Republic The Czech Republic has many prominent centrist parties, including the syncretic populist movement ANO 2011, the civil libertarian Czech Pirate Party, the long-standing Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party, and the localist party Mayors and Independents.

Estonia

France

France has a tradition of parties that call themselves "", though the actual parties vary over time. When a new political issue emerges and a new political party breaks into the mainstream, the old centre-left party may be de facto pushed rightwards, but unable to consider itself a party of the right, it will embrace being the new centre. This process occurred with Orléanism, Moderate Républicanism, Radical Republicanism, and Radical-Socialism. The most notable centrist party is Renaissance (LREM), founded by Emmanuel Macron, who was elected President of France in May 2017. Macron prefers not to use the term "centrist" to describe himself, though his policies tend to be centrist. Anotherparty is the Democratic Movement of François Bayrou, founded in 2007, which was the successor of the Christian democratic Union for French Democracy.

Germany

is used for the political centre and centrism. Historically, the German party with the most purely centrist nature among German parties to have had current or historical parliamentary representations was most likely the social-liberal German Democratic Party of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933).

During the Weimar Republic (and again after the Nazi period), there existed a Zentrum, a party of German Catholics founded in 1870. It was called the Centre Party not for being a proper centrist party but because it united left-wing and right-wing Catholics, because it was the first German party to be a Volkspartei (catch-all party), and because his elected representatives sat between the liberals (the left of the time) and the conservatives (the right of the time). However, it was distinctly right-wing conservative in that it was not neutral on religious issues (such as secular education), being markedly against more liberal and modernist positions.

The main successor of Zentrum after the return of democracy to West Germany in 1945, the Christian Democratic Union, has, throughout its history, alternated between describing itself as right-wing or centrist and sitting on the right-wing (with the Free Democratic Party in its social liberal moments sitting at its left, in the centre, and themselves sitting at the centre, with the FDP in its classical liberal moments sitting at its right, in the right-wing). The representatives of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, although they have referred to themselves as "the new middle" many times since the 1990s (under the influence of the Third Way of the time), feel less at ease describing their party as centrist due to their history and socialist identity.

Alliance 90/The Greens was founded in 1993 as a merger of the East German Alliance 90 (a group of centrist and transversalist civil rights activists) and the (West) German Greens. The latter was a coalition of various unorthodox-left politicians and more liberal "realists". This Bundestag party also hesitates to use the term centre, although it distances itself from the left, which identifies it for the moment as a transversalist party. The transversalist moderation of the party and its position in the Bundestag between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats also point somewhat to The Greens being a more or less centrist party.

In the state parliaments of specific German states, other specifically regional parties could be identified as centrist. The South Schleswig Voter Federation of the Danish and Frisian minorities in the state of Schleswig-Holstein currently has a centrist political position, although, in the past, the party usually leaned to the left. In the German presidential elections of 2009, 2010, and 2012, it supported the candidates of the Social Democrats and the Greens. In Bavaria, the Free Voters party at the state parliament may also be seen as a centrist party.

Greece In modern Greek politics, the roots of centrism can be traced to the centrist politician and founder of the Agricultural and Labour Party, Alexandros Papanastasiou. In 1961, Georgios Papandreou created, along with other political leaders, the coalition party of the Centre Union. Five parties were merged: the Liberal Party, the Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union, the National Progressive Centre Union, and the Popular Social Party, into one with a strong centrist agenda, opposed equally to the right-wing party of the National Radical Union and the left-wing party of the United Democratic Left. The Centre Union Party was the last Venizelist party to hold power in Greece. The party nominally continued to exist until 1977 (after the Junta, known as the Centre Union – New Forces), when its successor Union of the Democratic Centre (EDIK) party was created.

The Union of Centrists was created by Vassilis Leventis in 1992 under the title "Union of Centrists and Ecologists", though the name was changed shortly after. The Union of Centrists claims to be the ideological continuation of the old party Centre Union. The party strives to become "the political continuance of the centrist expression in Greece". Leventis aimed to become part of the Venizelist legacy of some great politicians of the past, such as Eleftherios Venizelos and George Papandreou Sr. However, the party's total influence had been marginal until 2015, with 1.8% of the total votes (in the January 2015 Greek legislative election) being its highest achievement before finally making its way to the Greek Parliament in September 2015 with 3.4% of the total votes and nine members elected. A short-lived social liberal party, The River, founded and led by Stavros Theodorakis, gained seats both in the Greek and European parliaments in 2015. The River dissolved in 2019.

Hong Kong

India

The Indian National Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, and the Nationalist Congress Party are the centrist national parties. Three state parties, All India Trinamool Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Telugu Desam Party, are also described as centrists, along with actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan's party named Makkal Needhi Maiam, meaning People's Centre for Justice.

Indonesia

Golkar, a major political party in Indonesia, has established itself and also gained a reputation as a centrist party when it comes to addressing the challenges of the country's diversity. Pancasila and the unity of Indonesia has always been the fundamental norms in resolving various problems.

Iran

Ireland In Ireland, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil claim the political centre ground but lean to the centre-right. The two parties have broadly similar policies, with their division originating in Irish Civil War politics. Fine Gael is aligned with Christian democratic parties in Europe via its membership in the European People's Party.

Israel