diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 91fd8fdf89de84e37d945e3d926b71303e94a300..7a179c2ef2cc6b01af6b691c94a02bd64fd8565a 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -147,8 +147,8 @@ unittest_py3.9:
     - pip install git+https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-pylib.git@${PYLIB}
     - pip install git+https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-advanced-user-tools.git@${ADVANCED}
     - pip install .[h5-crawler,spss,rocrate]
-    - echo "import sys; assert sys.version.startswith('"$PYVER"')"
-    - python3 -c "import sys; assert sys.version.startswith('"$PYVER"')"
+    - echo "import sys; assert sys.version.startswith('"+"$PYVER"+"')"
+    - python3 -c "import sys; assert sys.version.startswith('"+"$PYVER"+"')"
     # actual test
     - caosdb-crawler --help
     - pytest --cov=caosdb -vv ./unittests