diff --git a/coccinelle.changes b/coccinelle.changes
index 5f40093..73056bc 100644
--- a/coccinelle.changes
+++ b/coccinelle.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thu Sep  6 01:17:08 UTC 2012 - jengelh@inai.de
+
+- spatch requires the python base modules (like site.py) to run
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Mon Feb 13 10:45:09 UTC 2012 - coolo@suse.com
 
diff --git a/coccinelle.spec b/coccinelle.spec
index 22321e2..929c626 100644
--- a/coccinelle.spec
+++ b/coccinelle.spec
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ BuildRequires:  ncurses-devel
 BuildRequires:  ocaml
 BuildRequires:  python-devel
 BuildRequires:  xz
+Requires:       python-base
 
 %description
 Coccinelle is a program matching and transformation engine which