diff --git a/libvirt.spec.in b/libvirt.spec.in
index bc8257f34b29cf9f30724732b8387eb5c4becd55..d6e387951bec030ae083ac2fc31e9c3ea19a303b 100644
--- a/libvirt.spec.in
+++ b/libvirt.spec.in
@@ -202,6 +202,13 @@
     %define with_bash_completion  0%{!?_without_bash_completion:1}
 %endif
 
+# Use Python 3 when possible, Python 2 otherwise
+%if 0%{?fedora} || 0%{?rhel} > 7
+    %define python python3
+%else
+    %define python python2
+%endif
+
 
 %if %{with_qemu} || %{with_lxc} || %{with_uml}
 # numad is used to manage the CPU and memory placement dynamically,
@@ -305,7 +312,7 @@ BuildRequires: perl-interpreter
 %else
 BuildRequires: perl
 %endif
-BuildRequires: python2
+BuildRequires: %{python}
 %if %{with_systemd}
 BuildRequires: systemd-units
 %endif