diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 35044bcd..bdd30df8 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ What's new in psycopg 2.8.7
 
 - Accept empty params as `~psycopg2.connect()` (:ticket:`#1250`).
 - Fix attributes refcount in `Column` initialisation (:ticket:`#1252`).
+- Allow re-initialisation of static variables in the C module (:ticket:`#1267`).
 
 
 What's new in psycopg 2.8.6
diff --git a/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c b/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c
index 36fd1f9c..d448d010 100644
--- a/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c
+++ b/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c
@@ -608,6 +608,10 @@ encodings_init(PyObject *module)
     int rv = -1;
 
     Dprintf("psycopgmodule: initializing encodings table");
+    if (psycoEncodings) {
+        Dprintf("encodings_init(): already called");
+        return 0;
+    }
 
     if (!(psycoEncodings = PyDict_New())) { goto exit; }
     Py_INCREF(psycoEncodings);
@@ -770,9 +774,8 @@ sqlstate_errors_init(PyObject *module)
     Dprintf("psycopgmodule: initializing sqlstate exceptions");
 
     if (sqlstate_errors) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_SystemError,
-            "sqlstate_errors_init(): already called");
-        goto exit;
+		Dprintf("sqlstate_errors_init(): already called");
+        return 0;
     }
     if (!(errmodule = PyImport_ImportModule("psycopg2.errors"))) {
         /* don't inject the exceptions into the errors module */