diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py
index ce5377483dd..735b8c90996 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
         ]
 
         if '+ucs4' in spec:
-            if spec.satisfies('@:3.0'):
+            if spec.satisfies('@:2.7'):
                 config_args.append('--enable-unicode=ucs4')
             elif spec.satisfies('@3.0:3.2'):
               config_args.append('--with-wide-unicode')