diff --git a/utils/searxng.sh b/utils/searxng.sh
index b34298e85..4ad2ef93f 100755
--- a/utils/searxng.sh
+++ b/utils/searxng.sh
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ NGINX_SEARXNG_SITE="searxng.conf"
 # apt packages
 
 SEARXNG_PACKAGES_debian="\
-python3-dev python3-babel python3-venv
+python3-dev python3-babel python3-venv python-is-python3
 uwsgi uwsgi-plugin-python3
 git build-essential libxslt-dev zlib1g-dev libffi-dev libssl-dev"