diff --git a/configure b/configure
index ca9b458ea0..a5841241be 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1964,8 +1964,8 @@ fi
 
 # Note that if the Python conditional here evaluates True we will exit
 # with status 1 which is a shell 'false' value.
-if ! $python -c 'import sys; sys.exit(sys.version_info < (3,5))'; then
-  error_exit "Cannot use '$python', Python >= 3.5 is required." \
+if ! $python -c 'import sys; sys.exit(sys.version_info < (3,6))'; then
+  error_exit "Cannot use '$python', Python >= 3.6 is required." \
       "Use --python=/path/to/python to specify a supported Python."
 fi
 
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 606f623211..00e1b750e2 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ from sphinx.errors import ConfigError
 # In newer versions of Sphinx this will display nicely; in older versions
 # Sphinx will also produce a Python backtrace but at least the information
 # gets printed...
-if sys.version_info < (3,5):
+if sys.version_info < (3,6):
     raise ConfigError(
-        "QEMU requires a Sphinx that uses Python 3.5 or better\n")
+        "QEMU requires a Sphinx that uses Python 3.6 or better\n")
 
 # The per-manual conf.py will set qemu_docdir for a single-manual build;
 # otherwise set it here if this is an entire-manual-set build.
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py b/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
index 91e4a57126..f48460480a 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
@@ -40,8 +40,6 @@ sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', '..', 'python'))
 from qemu import qtest
 from qemu.qmp import QMPMessage
 
-assert sys.version_info >= (3, 6)
-
 # Use this logger for logging messages directly from the iotests module
 logger = logging.getLogger('qemu.iotests')
 logger.addHandler(logging.NullHandler())