diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index 762e37bfd6..ffcd25bf1f 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -1403,6 +1403,14 @@ S: Maintained
 F: include/sysemu/cryptodev*.h
 F: backends/cryptodev*.c
 
+Python scripts
+M: Eduardo Habkost <ehabkost@redhat.com>
+M: Cleber Rosa <crosa@redhat.com>
+S: Odd fixes
+F: scripts/qmp/*
+F: scripts/*.py
+F: tests/*.py
+
 QAPI
 M: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
 M: Michael Roth <mdroth@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
diff --git a/scripts/qemu.py b/scripts/qemu.py
index 2b5c2accb5..c9a106fbce 100644
--- a/scripts/qemu.py
+++ b/scripts/qemu.py
@@ -89,6 +89,9 @@ class QEMUMachine(object):
         self._qmp = None
         self._qemu_full_args = None
 
+        # just in case logging wasn't configured by the main script:
+        logging.basicConfig(level=(logging.DEBUG if debug else logging.WARN))
+
     def __enter__(self):
         return self