diff --git a/scripts/powerline-release.py b/scripts/powerline-release.py
index 39b1abc5..e916e74d 100755
--- a/scripts/powerline-release.py
+++ b/scripts/powerline-release.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import codecs
 import os
 import re
 
-from subprocess import check_output, check_call
+from subprocess import check_output, check_call, CalledProcessError
 from getpass import getpass
 
 from github import Github
@@ -50,7 +50,10 @@ def parse_version(s):
 
 def merge(version_string, rev, **kwargs):
 	check_call(['git', 'checkout', 'master'])
-	check_call(['git', '-c', 'merge.tool=vimdiff', 'merge', '--no-ff', '--no-commit', '--log', rev])
+	try:
+		check_call(['git', 'merge', '--no-ff', '--no-commit', '--log', rev])
+	except CalledProcessError:
+		check_call(['git', 'mergetool', '--tool', 'vimdiff2'])
 
 	with codecs.open('.setup.py.new', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as NS:
 		with codecs.open('setup.py', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as OS: