Surely they were not pegged for decades given that the Euro was introduced in 1998 and they transitioned fully in 2002?
It was pegged originally to the Deutschmark. If you look up a currency table the historic DEM has the exact same conversion rate as the lev will have.
I don’t think those two are comparable economies to Bulgaria 20 years ago.
Thinking about it, the comparison really isn't that bad. West Germany had just reunited with the East, and France was definitely on a similar upward trajectory as Bulgaria is today.
When the EU was formed, its members' economies were comparable.
The lev was pegged to the euro in 1999, Bulgaria was roughly 80% poorer than the EU leaders
(I'm using PPP figures from ChatGPT to make these comparisons, I don't know if I'm making any sense)