diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/emacs/wrapper.nix b/pkgs/build-support/emacs/wrapper.nix
index 99f732be1557..678ba4502112 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/emacs/wrapper.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/emacs/wrapper.nix
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
       addToEmacsPaths $pkg
     done
 
-    echo "(package-initialize)" >>"$siteStart"
-
     # Byte-compiling improves start-up time only slightly, but costs nothing.
     emacs --batch -f batch-byte-compile "$siteStart"