diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index ed6307d..2b94c1b 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
   [ Sascha Steinbiss ]
   * Add patch to fix test failures.
     Closes: #963332
+  * Add patch to call SPAdes correctly.
 
  -- Sascha Steinbiss <satta@debian.org>  Tue, 30 Jun 2020 12:32:39 +0200
 
diff --git a/debian/patches/run-debian-spades-wrapper.patch b/debian/patches/run-debian-spades-wrapper.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ad91f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/patches/run-debian-spades-wrapper.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+Description: run Debian SPAdes wrapper
+ Debian's /usr/bin/spades.py is not a Python script, but a wrapper
+ around a common executable only provided for compatibility reasons.
+ Ariba is trying to execute it explicitly as a Python script.
+ This patch just calls the executable without forcing it through the
+ Python interpreter.
+Author: Sascha Steinbiss <satta@debian.org>
+Last-Update: 2020-06-30
+--- a/ariba/assembly.py
++++ b/ariba/assembly.py
+@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@
+                 spades_out_seq_base = "contigs.fasta"
+             else:
+                 raise ValueError("Unknown spades_mode value: {}".format(self.spades_mode))
+-            asm_cmd = ['python3', spades_exe, "-t", str(self.threads), "--pe1-1", self.reads1, "--pe1-2", self.reads2, "-o", self.assembler_dir] + \
++            asm_cmd = [spades_exe, "-t", str(self.threads), "--pe1-1", self.reads1, "--pe1-2", self.reads2, "-o", self.assembler_dir] + \
+                 spades_options
+             asm_ok,err = common.syscall(asm_cmd, verbose=True, verbose_filehandle=self.log_fh, shell=False, allow_fail=True)
+             if not asm_ok:
diff --git a/debian/patches/series b/debian/patches/series
index 4bdfe63..3f704c1 100644
--- a/debian/patches/series
+++ b/debian/patches/series
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@
 add-testdata.patch
 disable-tests-with-internet-access.patch
 support-pymummer-0.11.patch
+run-debian-spades-wrapper.patch