diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 6971b9f71161cbc21b0c46be65dc9840e196a8d9..99eaa72de33c71067cfbc2de4ada3a4b7792ae26 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ mdlint:
     - job: find-files
       artifacts: true
   script:
+    - echo en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 > /etc/locale.gen
     - apt update && apt install -yy markdownlint locales
     - |
       echo "working on files: $(cat changed-files.txt)"
@@ -83,6 +84,7 @@ mdlintall:
     - job: find-files
       artifacts: true
   script:
+    - echo en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 > /etc/locale.gen
     - apt update && apt install -yy markdownlint locales
     - echo 'this is important to get the return value of mdl, not grep'
     - set -o pipefail