https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=93842
--- Comment #3 from kuzniar95 at o2 dot pl --- @Richard Biener changing it to char const ch = '='; // NOT OK doesn't solve the issue. Interestingly dropping constness: char ch = '='; // OK works. So we are onto something - both const and constexpr introduce some different handling but this special behaviour changes accessibility. I understand "different handling" when we're talking about compile-time expressions such as using constants for array dimensions but accessibility changes are quite suspicious.