diff --git a/contrib/debian/control b/contrib/debian/control
--- a/contrib/debian/control
+++ b/contrib/debian/control
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Build-Depends:
  unzip,
  zip
 Standards-Version: 3.9.4
-X-Python-Version: >= 2.6
+X-Python-Version: >= 2.7
 
 Package: mercurial
 Depends:
diff --git a/contrib/mercurial.spec b/contrib/mercurial.spec
--- a/contrib/mercurial.spec
+++ b/contrib/mercurial.spec
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ BuildRequires: make, gcc, gettext
 %if "%{?withpython}"
 BuildRequires: readline-devel, openssl-devel, ncurses-devel, zlib-devel, bzip2-devel
 %else
-BuildRequires: python >= 2.6, python-devel, python-docutils >= 0.5
-Requires: python >= 2.6
+BuildRequires: python >= 2.7, python-devel, python-docutils >= 0.5
+Requires: python >= 2.7
 %endif
 # The hgk extension uses the wish tcl interpreter, but we don't enforce it
 #Requires: tk
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 # 'python setup.py --help' for more options
 
 import sys, platform
-if sys.version_info < (2, 6, 0, 'final'):
-    raise SystemExit("Mercurial requires Python 2.6 or later.")
+if sys.version_info < (2, 7, 0, 'final'):
+    raise SystemExit('Mercurial requires Python 2.7 or later.')
 
 if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
     printf = eval('print')