diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/package.py
index ab5fe9a043..f64dc6e812 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/package.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ class Clingo(CMakePackage):
     # TODO: Simplify this after Spack 0.21 release. The old concretizer has problems with
     # py-setuptools ^python@3.6, so we only apply the distutils -> setuptools patch for Python 3.12
     with when("@:5.6.1 ^python@3.12:"):
-        patch("setuptools.patch")
+        patch("setuptools-2.patch")
         depends_on("py-setuptools", type="build")
 
     def patch(self):
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/setuptools-2.patch b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/setuptools-2.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6c6377936f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/setuptools-2.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+diff --git a/cmake/python-site.py b/cmake/python-site.py
+--- a/cmake/python-site.py
++++ b/cmake/python-site.py
+@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
++import setuptools  # makes import distutils work
+ from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib, get_config_vars
+ import sys
+ if sys.argv[1] == "prefix":
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/setuptools.patch b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/setuptools.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 4a38a7e6d9..0000000000
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/clingo/setuptools.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-diff --git a/cmake/python-site.py b/cmake/python-site.py
-index 1e7fc8ce..95ef827f 100644
---- a/cmake/python-site.py
-+++ b/cmake/python-site.py
-@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
--from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib, get_config_vars
-+try:
-+    from setuptools.sysconfig import get_python_lib, get_config_vars
-+except ImportError:
-+    from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib, get_config_vars
- import sys
- if sys.argv[1] == "prefix":
-     print(get_python_lib(True, False, sys.argv[2] if len(sys.argv) > 2 else None))
-