diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index c5bc45919a..789fa39b0f 100755
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ Copyright (c) 2020-2021 John Snow for Red Hat, Inc.
 import setuptools
 from setuptools.command import bdist_egg
 import sys
-import pkg_resources
 
 
 class bdist_egg_guard(bdist_egg.bdist_egg):
@@ -30,9 +29,6 @@ def main():
     QEMU tooling installer
     """
 
-    # https://medium.com/@daveshawley/safely-using-setup-cfg-for-metadata-1babbe54c108
-    pkg_resources.require('setuptools>=39.2')
-
     setuptools.setup(cmdclass={'bdist_egg': bdist_egg_guard})