diff --git a/kde-dev-scripts.spec b/kde-dev-scripts.spec
index b0dfbf2..7f006a3 100644
--- a/kde-dev-scripts.spec
+++ b/kde-dev-scripts.spec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Name:    kde-dev-scripts
 Summary: KDE SDK scripts
 Version: 17.12.1
-Release: 2%{?dist}
+Release: 3%{?dist}
 
 License: GPLv2+ and GPLv2+ and BSD
 URL:     https://cgit.kde.org/%{name}.git
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ BuildRequires:  extra-cmake-modules
 BuildRequires:  cmake(KF5DocTools)
 
 BuildRequires:  perl-generators
-# for python macros
+# for python2-rpm-macros
 BuildRequires:  python2-devel
 # for env replacement in %%install
 BuildRequires:  sed
@@ -60,8 +60,8 @@ sed -i \
   -e "s|^#! /usr/bin/env bash|#!/bin/bash|g" \
   -e "s|^#!/usr/bin/env perl|#!/usr/bin/perl|g" \
   -e "s|^#! /usr/bin/env perl|#!/usr/bin/perl|g" \
-  -e "s|^#!/usr/bin/env python$|#!%{__python}|g" \
-  -e "s|^#! /usr/bin/env python$|#!%{__python}|g" \
+  -e "s|^#!/usr/bin/env python$|#!%{__python2}|g" \
+  -e "s|^#! /usr/bin/env python$|#!%{__python2}|g" \
   %{buildroot}%{_kf5_bindir}/*
 
 # unpackaged files
@@ -158,6 +158,9 @@ test -n "$(grep "/usr/bin/env" %{buildroot}%{_kf5_bindir}/* 2> /dev/null )" ||:
 
 
 %changelog
+* Tue Jan 16 2018 Rex Dieter <rdieter@fedoraproject.org> - 17.12.1-3
+- explicitly use %%__python2 (instead of %%__python)
+
 * Mon Jan 15 2018 Iryna Shcherbina <ishcherb@redhat.com> - 17.12.1-2
 - Update Python 2 dependency declarations to new packaging standards
   (See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FinalizingFedoraSwitchtoPython3)