Centrão

In Brazilian politics, the centrão (lit. 'big centre' – Portuguese pronunciation: [se᷉'tɾɐ᷉w᷉]) refers to a group of political parties that do not have a specific or consistent ideological orientation and aim at ensuring proximity to the executive branch in order to guarantee advantages and allow them to distribute privileges through clientelistic networks. Despite its name, the centrão is not a centrist political group, generally composed of parliamentarians from the "lower clergy" and big tent parties, who act according to their own interests, linked to cronyism and logrolling.