diff --git a/python/setup.cfg b/python/setup.cfg
index e183e6b3f..49cc08fe2 100644
--- a/python/setup.cfg
+++ b/python/setup.cfg
@@ -26,4 +26,3 @@ install_requires =
     vtk>=8.1
     matplotlib>=3.0                                                                                 # requires numpy, pillow
     pyyaml>=3.12
-setup_requires = setuptools