diff --git a/Modules/posixmodule.c b/Modules/posixmodule.c
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c
@@ -7447,7 +7447,9 @@
     char *path;
     int res;
     struct statvfs st;
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s:statvfs", &path))
+
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "et:statvfs",
+                          Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding, &path))
         return NULL;
     Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS
     res = statvfs(path, &st);
@@ -9478,5 +9480,3 @@
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
 #endif
-
-