diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a6826628f3..37dbae173e 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -41,7 +41,8 @@ stages:
     - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; dbus-uuidgen --ensure
     - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; sed -i 's/^# \(pl_PL.UTF-8 .*\)$/\1/p' /etc/locale.gen ; true
     - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; locale-gen pl_PL.UTF-8
-    - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; pip3 install meson
+    - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; grep -q "VERSION=.16.04.6 LTS" /etc/os-release && pip3 install meson==0.53.2
+    - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; grep -q "VERSION=.16.04.6 LTS" /etc/os-release || pip3 install meson
     - date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S'; contrib/scripts/nm-ci-install-valgrind-in-ubuntu1604.sh
 
     # iproute2 5.2.0 on debian:sid causes our unit tests to fail.