A Spanish government official on Friday apologised to Catalans injured by police action during the region’s independence referendum on October 1. Spanish authorities also suggested that Catalonia hold a regional election to defuse the crisis, AFP reported.

“I can do nothing but regret it, apologise on behalf of the officers who intervened [in the vote],” the Spanish government’s representative in Catalonia, Enric Millo said.

Central government spokesperson Ignacio Mendez de Vigo also said he “regretted” the injuries. “It would be good to start mending this fracture, through regional elections,” he said at a press conference on Friday.

Meanwhile, Catalan separatists are working on a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain, which could be adopted next week in defiance of an order by Spain’s Constitutional Court suspending a session of the Catalan regional parliament set for Monday, Reuters reported.

“We are in talks about a text, with paper and pencil, on the declaration [of independence] that we want the regional parliament to accept on Tuesday,” Carles Riera, a lawmaker from the pro-independence Popular Unity Candidacy party said.