Germany’s Jewish community has welcomed the move by the country’s domestic intelligence service to classify the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as “suspected far-right extremism”.

Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the ruling confirms the “danger” the “destructive politics” of the AfD represents to German democracy.

The decision—taken at the end of February but made public on 3 March —allows the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) to place the AfD under surveillance.

The BfV is permitted to use undercover informants or tap the party’s phones and other means of communication in order to monitor the activities of the largest opposition party in the German parliament.

Domestic intelligence will have to wait, however, until proceedings in a lawsuit brought by the AfD against the BfV are concluded before their order can be enforced or enacted, an administrative court in Cologne ruled Friday.

The decision sets up a contentious battle between party and state ahead of all-important German parliamentary elections in September.

The far-right AfD, which won 12.6 percent of the vote in 2017, has been polling at between 9 and 11 percent in recent days.