diff --git a/cmake/python.cmake b/cmake/python.cmake
index b84be86aba9..9926e944d42 100644
--- a/cmake/python.cmake
+++ b/cmake/python.cmake
@@ -9,5 +9,29 @@ if (WIN32)
   set(ENV{PYTHONIOENCODING} "utf-8")
 endif()
 
-find_package(Python3 3.6 REQUIRED)
+set(PYTHON_MINIMUM_REQUIRED 3.6)
+
+# We are using foreach here, instead of find_program(PYTHON_EXECUTABLE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT "python" "python3")
+# cause just using find_program directly could result in a python2.7 as python, and not finding a valid python3.
+foreach(PYTHON_PREFER ${PYTHON_PREFER} "python" "python3")
+  find_program(PYTHON_PREFER_EXECUTABLE ${PYTHON_PREFER})
+  if(PYTHON_PREFER_EXECUTABLE)
+      execute_process (COMMAND "${PYTHON_PREFER_EXECUTABLE}" -c
+                               "import sys; sys.stdout.write('.'.join([str(x) for x in sys.version_info[:2]]))"
+                       RESULT_VARIABLE result
+                       OUTPUT_VARIABLE version
+                       ERROR_QUIET
+                       OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
+
+     if(version VERSION_LESS PYTHON_MINIMUM_REQUIRED)
+       set_property (CACHE PYTHON_PREFER_EXECUTABLE PROPERTY VALUE "PYTHON_PREFER_EXECUTABLE-NOTFOUND")
+     else()
+       set(PYTHON_MINIMUM_REQUIRED ${version})
+       set(PYTHON_EXACT EXACT)
+       break()
+     endif()
+  endif()
+endforeach()
+
+find_package(Python3 ${PYTHON_MINIMUM_REQUIRED} REQUIRED ${PYTHON_EXACT})
 set(PYTHON_EXECUTABLE ${Python3_EXECUTABLE})