diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 7b87017b46f..08667a82acf 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ project(
   'mesa',
   ['c', 'cpp'],
   version : run_command(
-    [find_program('python', 'python3'), 'bin/meson_get_version.py']
+    [find_program('python3', 'python'), 'bin/meson_get_version.py']
   ).stdout(),
   license : 'MIT',
   meson_version : '>= 0.52',