diff --git a/src/core/mount-setup.c b/src/core/mount-setup.c
index 0fe794d2af..a0b5bff5a7 100644
--- a/src/core/mount-setup.c
+++ b/src/core/mount-setup.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include <ftw.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <sys/mount.h>
+#include <sys/statvfs.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 #include "alloc-util.h"
@@ -385,6 +386,35 @@ static int nftw_cb(
 
         return FTW_CONTINUE;
 };
+
+static int relabel_cgroup_filesystems(void) {
+        int r;
+        struct statfs st;
+
+        r = cg_all_unified();
+        if (r == 0) {
+                /* Temporarily remount the root cgroup filesystem to give it a proper label. Do this
+                   only when the filesystem has been already populated by a previous instance of systemd
+                   running from initrd. Otherwise don't remount anything and leave the filesystem read-write
+                   for the cgroup filesystems to be mounted inside. */
+                r = statfs("/sys/fs/cgroup", &st);
+                if (r < 0) {
+                        return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to determine mount flags for /sys/fs/cgroup: %m");
+                }
+
+                if (st.f_flags & ST_RDONLY)
+                        (void) mount(NULL, "/sys/fs/cgroup", NULL, MS_REMOUNT, NULL);
+
+                (void) label_fix("/sys/fs/cgroup", 0);
+                nftw("/sys/fs/cgroup", nftw_cb, 64, FTW_MOUNT|FTW_PHYS|FTW_ACTIONRETVAL);
+
+                if (st.f_flags & ST_RDONLY)
+                        (void) mount(NULL, "/sys/fs/cgroup", NULL, MS_REMOUNT|MS_RDONLY, NULL);
+        } else if (r < 0)
+                return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to determine whether we are in all unified mode: %m");
+
+        return 0;
+}
 #endif
 
 int mount_setup(bool loaded_policy) {
@@ -409,15 +439,9 @@ int mount_setup(bool loaded_policy) {
                 nftw("/dev/shm", nftw_cb, 64, FTW_MOUNT|FTW_PHYS|FTW_ACTIONRETVAL);
                 nftw("/run", nftw_cb, 64, FTW_MOUNT|FTW_PHYS|FTW_ACTIONRETVAL);
 
-                /* Temporarily remount the root cgroup filesystem to give it a proper label. */
-                r = cg_all_unified();
-                if (r == 0) {
-                        (void) mount(NULL, "/sys/fs/cgroup", NULL, MS_REMOUNT, NULL);
-                        (void) label_fix("/sys/fs/cgroup", 0);
-                        nftw("/sys/fs/cgroup", nftw_cb, 64, FTW_MOUNT|FTW_PHYS|FTW_ACTIONRETVAL);
-                        (void) mount(NULL, "/sys/fs/cgroup", NULL, MS_REMOUNT|MS_RDONLY, NULL);
-                } else if (r < 0)
-                        return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to determine whether we are in all unified mode: %m");
+                r = relabel_cgroup_filesystems();
+                if (r < 0)
+                        return r;
 
                 after_relabel = now(CLOCK_MONOTONIC);